A^ V 






V $ 













£* ^ 



■>*. 



*'T7i« .0 



**o* 















Mfc V** .• tffeft V./ -i^. V* 








A V ^ 
* ^ ^ 







*o 




Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/saltwatergamefisOOhold 



SALT WATER GAME FISHING 




Author in a Santa Catalina fishing launch 



57 
3/0 



SALT WATER 
GAME FISHING 

BY 

CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER 

Author of " Big Game at Sea," etc. 



HANDBOOKS 



Number 39 




NEW YORK 

OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 

MCMXIV 



Me 



Copyright, 1914, by 
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Entered at Stationer's Hall, London England 



All rights reserved 



APR 14:1914 



/^ 



-OCI.A869688 



PREFACE 

IN the present volume of this series I have 
attempted to give the angler interested in 
sea angling alone some general idea of the 
marine fishes of the United States to which the 
term game may legitimately be applied. The 
subject at best is an exhaustless one, and it is 
somewhat difficult to condense to the essentials 
and compress it into a little volume which the 
sea angler can slip into his pocket. I am aware, 
then, that my sense of proportion may be at 
fault and that I may have eliminated or 
omitted some of the very points the reader 
may desire, but I have endeavored to put my- 
self in his place and have given only the essen- 
tials. 

As an illustration, a large volume could be 
written on tackle alone. A ponderous book 
would be required to describe fully the fishing 
grounds around New York, Fire Island, etc. 
This is also true of Florida or California, so I 
have only hinted at the details and fishes to be 
found in certain localities. 

5 



6 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

For the convenience of the angler I have di- 
vided the fields of angling into geographical 
areas, and have given the fishes, the bait used, 
the tackle to be employed, so that the angler 
can go to the region knowing what to expect 
and what to take, and arriving, can obtain the 
lesser details from boatmen. I have fished 
nearly all the seaboards from Maine to Ar- 
ansas Pass, Texas, and from the Gulf of 
California to Oregon on the Pacific slope, and 
have taken, I think, all the fishes described or 
mentioned in the volume. Two regions stand 
out in strong relief — that of Florida and the 
Southern California islands. In the former 
the region one hundred and fifty miles north 
or south of Cape Sable is the greatest tropical 
sea angling ground in the world, as here the 
angler floats over coral reefs and catches the 
purely tropical game: jacks, kingfish, tarpon, 
and snappers, yet is but a few hours from New 
York. There is no place just like it, as a fishing 
region does not depend on its fishes alone, but 
must have comforts for your modern angler. 
I fished the Florida reef in i860, before there 
was even a telegraph wire from Key West to 
the coast. To-day you can go to Key West 
by rail; the finest hotels in the world line 
the east and west coast, and the day will come 



PREFACE 7 

when Key West, with its incomparable winter 
climate and sport, will be a favorite for anglers 
and tourists. 

Equal to this, yet totally different, is the an- 
gling region of Southern California islands — 
Santa Catalina and San Clemente, twenty or 
more miles from Los Angeles, a city of nearly 
two-thirds of a million people. Here the catch 
is semi-tropic — the leaping tuna, the yellow-fin 
tuna, the long-fin tuna, the white sea bass, and, 
most important, the leaping swordfish, which 
attracts to this region the anglers of the world. 
Here the Tuna Club has taken form, including 
some of the most influential and distinguished 
men in America and England, who have con- 
served the fisheries and elevated the standards 
of sport. England has the lead in angling 
clubs, due to its age and maturity, but America 
is forging to the front, and scores of influential 
clubs like the Santa Catalina Island Tuna Club, 
the Aransas Pass Tarpon Club, the Asbury 
Park Fishing Club, the Southern California 
'Rod and Reel Club of Los Angeles, are 
coming to the fore; not alone to catch fish, but 
to establish standards of sport, conserve the 
fisheries, and aid in the establishment of game 
laws and see that they are observed. Upon 
the intelligent angler depends the fish supply 



8 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

of the future, as they stand for protection, and 
without their intervention the alien market fish- 
ermen would make desolate the seas, rivers, 
lakes, and streams in less than a decade. The 
sea angler of to-day is not only an angler, he 
is a conservator of the people's interest. 

C. F. H. 
Pasadena, CaL 






CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. THE GROUNDS 13 

II. TACKLE SUGGESTIONS 24 

III. THE NEW ENGLAND GROUNDS . . 34 

Group i — 
The Swordfish (Xiphias) 34 

Group 2 — 
The Pollock and Its Friends 39 

IV. THE NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY 

GROUNDS 43 

Group 3— 
The Striped Bass and Its Friends ... 43 

Group 4 — 
The Channel Bass, Porgy, etc 51 

Group 5— 

The Weakfish and Others 55 

V. THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 61 

Group 6 — 
The Big Barracuda 61 

Group 7 — 
Sailfish and Amberjack 65 

Group 8— 
The Small Game Fishes of Florida . . 70 

Group 9 — 
The Tarpon 76 

Group 10 — 
The Jewfish and Black Grouper ... 80 

VI. THE GULF GROUNDS 83 

Group ii — 
The Kingfish and Its Allies, Spanish 

Mackerel, etc 83 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VII. THE PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS . . 87 

Group 12— 
The Leaping Tuna 87 

Group 13 — 
The Yellow-fin Tuna 101 

Group 14— 
The Long-fin Tuna 104 

Group 15 — 
The Little Tunnies 109 

Group 16 — 
The Black Sea Bass 112 

Group 17 — 
The White Sea Bass 116 

Group 18 — 
The Yellowtail 119 

Group 19 — 
Small Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast. 124 

Group 20— 
The Shore Fishes of the Pacific ... 128 

Group 21 — 
Striped Bass in California ..... 133 

Group 22 — 
The Sea Salmon 135 

Groue 23 — 
The Santa Catalina Swordfish . . . 140 
VIII. MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION . . 149 

1. An Angling Itinerary 149 

2. Bibliography 151 

3. Angling Clubs 152 

4. The Climate 153 

5. Equipment 155 

6. The Localities 157 

7. Index 161 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Author in a Santa Catalina Fish- 
ing Launch Frontispiece, i^ 

facing page 
Rods 24 ^ 

Rod Handling 27 ^ 

Hooks and Tools 30 * 

Porgy "J / 

Striped Bas - V 43 v 

Bluefish J 

Shore Fishing -.■-.- 52 *S 

Black GrouperT 

Hogfish 1 *„ . X 

Barracuda f * * " * : ' ' v • : * * *" ^ °3 ^ 

POMPANO J 

Tarpon 76^ 

Jewfish 80^ 

Spanish Mackerel 
Kingfish 



\ , 85^ 

/ 

Leaping Tuna 87 u 

Long-fin Tuna . 104 ^ 

Black Sea Bass 112 " 

White Sea Bass 115 1/ 

Yellow-tail 119 1/ 

Yellow-fin Tuna "Y 

Whitefish >■...-.- -.- . .... 125 ^ 

Mackerel ' 



CHAPTER I 

THE GROUNDS 

FOR the convenience of the reader, the 
angling grounds for sea game fish in 
America may be divided into several 
great divisions. They are so located that the 
sportsman can begin at a definite point and 
swing around an angling circle, covering the 
entire field in a satisfactory manner and during 
the trip traverse the most interesting portions 
of America. They are as follows: 

New England 

First, The New England fishing ground, 
including the New England States and the 
vicinity of Cape Cod, Block Island, etc. Here 
we have the bluefish, the swordfish (Xiphias), 
the striped bass, halibut, the pollock, blackfish, 
and mackerel, distinctively game fishes, and 
many more, such as tautog, cod, hake, had- 
dock, all found in water of greater or less 
depth, not always game, but valuable; and num- 
13 



14 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

bers of small fry, as the cunner, flounder, scul- 
pin, and others, interesting at times with rod 
and light lines. 

This region, besides the coast from " 'way 
down East," should embrace the mouth of the 
St. Lawrence River, Nova Scotia, and New 
Brunswick (for the tuna fishing), down along- 
shore to Block Island, where there is excellent 
sport with the bluefish, and at times tuna, while 
the big swordfish also waits. 

Various steamers from Boston reach Nova 
Scotia. The mouth of the St. Lawrence and 
Prince Edward's Island are available from 
Montreal, Quebec, and Boston, the trip being 
easy and interesting. The coast of Maine near 
Booth Bay, Squirrel Island, and Ocean Point 
abounds in excellent fishing from the rocks, 
though it is not over exciting. At Ogunquit I 
have had excellent sport for pollock with a fly 
and trout rod. From here I went out to the 
vicinity of Boon Island, ten miles offshore, for 
halibut, cod, tuna, swordfish, sharks (dogfish), 
the latter and cod predominating. Not far 
from here some years ago one hundred tunas 
were taken, each of which weighed over one 
thousand pounds. They were caught in a net in 
Gloucester harbor. 

All alongshore there are fishes of some sort, 



THE GROUNDS 15 

from the dainty cunner I caught when a boy at 
Red Rock, Lynn, Nahant or Swamscott, to the 
larger fry off Egg Rock. Excellent fishing is 
found down by Buzzard's Bay. From New 
Bedford a steamer may be taken to Nantucket, 
where most invigorating bluefish trolling may 
be had and a variety of game, including big 
sharks not found inshore. 

On the strangely named islands off New 
Bedford, as Cuttyhunk, there are still some 
striped bass, but not to compare with the sport 
thirty or forty years ago, when many clubs 
made these islands famous. Block Island is 
within easy reach of New Bedford, Providence, 
and Newport, and may be termed the head- 
quarters of the bluefish and the swordfish 
industry. 

The Tuna Club of Santa Catalina Island set 
a new pace for anglers in taking a 355-pound 
swordfish, the feat being accomplished by Mr. 
Boschen of New York. This was the first 
Mediterranean, or what is known as the Atlan- 
tic, swordfish (Xiphias) ever taken with rod 
and reel, although Dr. Gifford Pinchot played 
one four hours in 19 10. It is particularly 
interesting that this fish should have been taken 
at Santa Catalina. Why this has not become 
a sport in the Block Island region long before 



16 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

lies in the fact that to take the fish in the At- 
lantic one must go to the open and rough 
water, while at Santa Catalina the game is 
played in the lee of the great islands, though 
twenty or more miles at sea and often in water 
as calm as a lake, an essential when the game 
is large and menacing. 

Fisher's Island, in Long Island Sound, is 
reached from New London by steamer, and 
some of the best bluefish, blackfish, and bass 
fishing I have ever had has been about this 
island. I often went out and landed my blue- 
fish in the blue, swift-running currents, and half 
an hour later had the game served for break- 
fast in the little inn — a dish for the gods, and 
no one knows the real bluefish unless he has 
had this experience of immediate eating. With 
the pollock this rule is even more imperative; 
it should be eaten at once when taken from the 
water. 

New York and New Jersey 

Second. The New York and New Jersey 
region. This includes the blackfish, the bass, 
the tunny, weakfish, drum, striped bass, blue- 
fish, mackerel, channel bass, sea bass and many 
smaller fishes. New York ranks next to Lon- 
don in its interest in angling. 



THE GROUNDS 17 

Every wharf has its devotees, and special 
steamers run out to the banks, loaded with an- 
glers, during the summer, and the pastime has 
its own patrons, its deep-sea tackle, its rods, 
reels and lines. Then there are numerous places 
down the harbor where the weakfish and the 
drumfish are taken from boats. In the bay 
near Coney Island I have watched the hauling 
of a fyke-net and noted the extraordinary va- 
riety of fishes caught prowling about the shal- 
lows at night, ranging from an occasional tar- 
pon to the channel bass and striped bass, with 
sharks, rays, and goosefish. 

The various inlets on the outer coast of 
Long Island afford good fishing, easy of access 
from New York by various lines. The cream 
of the fishing of this region is that which has 
the Asbury Park, N. J., Fishing Club as a 
center of radiation. The fine channel bass or 
spot comes into the surf to feed and the angler 
fishes standing on the beach or in the waves. 
Asbury Park is within a short distance of 
New York. An important center for striped 
bass is Harvey Cedars. Following down the 
coast we come to the great Chesapeake Bay, 
which abounds in fine fish, as the triple-tail. 
From here on a change is evident, although 
some of the Florida fishes, as the tarpon, mi- 



18 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

grate north, perhaps in the Gulf Stream. To 
reach the bay, steamers can be taken at Balti- 
more, or there are boats which leave New York 
direct for Norfolk. At Old Point and towns on 
the east shore, boatmen or professionals can 
be found who will take the angler out. 

Florida 

Third. The Florida region, which extends 
from Virginia to Cuba, includes the tarpon, 
amberjack, sheepshead, barracuda, ladyfish, 
bonefish, jacks, snappers, kingfish, cero, sailiish, 
parrot-fish, and an endless variety of small fry, 
from the angel- and parrot-fishes to the grunts 
and porgies. 

The angler who proposes to make the Flor- 
ida trip can now reach Key West in a Pullman 
car in practically two days; if in winter he 
can almost go to sleep in a winter land and 
awaken in summer. This is due to modern 
facilities and the new Flagler railway, which 
extends out over the reef to Key West, open- 
ing up one of the greatest angling regions of 
the world — that of the Florida reef. 

Good fishing is found all along the coast of 
Florida and Georgia, especially at the mouth 
of the St. Mary and St. John rivers, and all 



THE GROUNDS 19 

down the Indian- River country, where there 
is a chain of beautiful hotels, from St. Augus- 
tine, Miami, and around the Cape, up the in- 
side of the Gulf to Tampa; the entire region 
forming a real angler's paradise. An angler's 
camp or headquarters has been established at 
Long Key, where launches, rowboais, and sail- 
boats can be obtained for the outside big game 
fishing. 

The Gulf 

Fourth. There is a peculiar fascination 
about these islands, at least to me, as I knew 
them well years ago, when they were a terra 
incognita to the world and only reached by 
boat from St. Augustine or from Key West by 
sponger. Now steamers run up and down the 
coast from Tampa to Key West and Cuba, or 
from New York to Key West. So, too, with 
Galveston. Steamers connect it with New 
York, and it is a short and agreeable trip in 
the cars via the Southern Pacific or Sunset 
route. Here is the Galveston Tarpon Club and 
an extraordinary breakwater or jetty that ex- 
tends out into the Gulf affording fine sport to 
the most exacting angler. 

About one hundred miles south of Galves- 



20 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

ton, on a big inland sea like the Indian River, 
is Port Aransas, where the Tarpon Club holds 
forth. This is reached by rail from San An- 
tonio, Texas, and is, all things considered, one 
of the best sea angling points for tarpon on 
the Gulf. It is comfortable, on the water, and 
not too hot ashore in August. Tampico can 
be included in this region from an angling 
standpoint, and can be reached by rail from 
the interior and by boat from New York and 
possibly New Orleans. 



The Pacific Coast 

Fifth. The Pacific coast can be divided into 
two distinct fields of sea angling: one from 
Alaska and Vancouver to about San Francisco ; 
the other from Monterey to San Diego. In 
the north the sea angling is mainly the salmon, 
which is taken trolling at Vancouver with a 
spoon; sea-trout at Eureka; halibut, rock cod, 
striped bass, salmon, etc., in San Francisco 
Bay; while at Capitola, Santa Cruz, and Car- 
mel there is excellent trolling for salmon in 
July, August, and September. Good and often 
palatial hotels are found, and the angler, par- 
ticularly at Del Monte, where there is a sal- 



THE GROUNDS fil 

mon cannery, finds all the facilities for angling 
for the great Chinook salmon. 

Going south into the last field, angling is 
to be had at various points, as San Luis 
Obispo, where there is excellent sport with 
white sea bass — a giant weakfish, and all along- 
shore in season the steelhead is in evidence. 
At the Santa Barbara Islands we shall meet 
the bonito and albacore in numbers, and when 
we arrive at Santa Catalina and the U. S. 
Government island — San Clemente, one hun- 
dred miles south, we are in the heart of 
a wonderful sea angling country, justly fa- 
mous all over the world. This is due to the 
abundance of large game fishes on their 
spawning-beds, which Dr. Jordan states are 
about the* islands, and the fact that Santa 
Catalina, twenty-two miles in length, lies so 
that it constitutes a lee and smooth, lake-like 
water twenty or thirty miles out in the Pacific. 
This permits the use of light tackle, and to- 
gether with the fact that the region three miles 
from shore cannot be netted in the future, 
gives the angler the promise of the best sport. 

The great current, Kuro Shiwo, the Black 
Current of Japan, sweeps across the North 
Pacific and down the coast, and to this, doubt- 
less, is due the presence at Santa Catalina and 



22 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

San Clemente of many semi-tropic fishes or 
fishes common to Japan. The swordfish, 
taken here in large numbers with rod and 
reel, is so common in Japan that it has a 
Japanese name, Tetrapturus mitsukuii. 

The game fishes found here are the leaping 
tuna, two swordfishes — Xiphias and Tetrap- 
turus — the yellow-fin tuna, the long-fin tuna, 
two bonitos, the barracuda, sheepshead, rock 
bass of many varieties, the black sea bass, 
white sea bass, sea-trout, roncador, halibut, 
surf-fish, bony fish, and many more. 

The best fishing has been at Santa Catalina, 
San Clemente, and the Coronado Islands, one 
hundred miles to the south; but the latter are 
barren rocks, in Mexican waters, while Santa 
Catalina has two fully equipped towns, Avalon 
and Cabrillo and a summer population of ten 
thousand or more. 

One can reach this region from London or 
Paris in two weeks; from New York in five 
days. Los Angeles, a modern city of 600,000 
inhabitants, is the central point, having vari- 
ous lines of railroads, and there are various 
lines of steamers to it through the Panama 
Canal from the great ports of the world. 
Arriving in Los Angeles, the angler rides to 
the port in half or three-quaterrs of an hour, 



THE GROUNDS 23 

there taking the steamer Cabrillo or Hermosa 
to Santa Catalina. If the destination is San 
Clemente Island, twenty miles further out, a 
launch must be chartered, as there is often a 
heavy sea going or coming. This can be 
•avoided by making the trip early in the morn- 
ing, leaving either island by four or five A. M., 
the voyage requiring about three and a half 
hours. 

In a general way these fields of angling 
activity include all the sea angling in America. 
But we have Hawaii and the Philippines, and 
Bermuda and the Windward Islands are near 
at hand. In the Florida reef and the two 
islands — Santa Catalina and San Clemente — 
we have the best sea angling grounds in the 
world. 



CHAPTER II 

TACKLE SUGGESTIONS 

MR. SAMUEL G. CAMP in his 
" Fishing Kits and Equipment " * 
has so thoroughly exhausted the sub- 
ject of tackle that I can not do better than to 
recommend the book to the angler, and also re- 
fer briefly to the specific tackle used in the vari- 
ous sea angling fields indicated in the follow- 
ing pages. 

A revolution has taken place among the sea 
anglers of the world, and to-day fishes are 
taken on tackle so light as to have been consid- 
ered impossible fifteen years ago. This refor- 
mation was brought about by the Santa Catalina 
Island Tuna Club. In 1886 I took a black 
bass rod with a light trout line to Santa Cata- 
lina. It was the first ever seen in these dulcet 
waters. At that time, or soon after, it was 
the custom to go out with big hand-lines and 

* Outing Handbook No. 7. 
24 



£ 



o 
be 

s 

c3 

e3 
a) 




TACKLE SUGGESTIONS 25 

catch half a ton of splendid yellowtails, a fish 
that resembles a salmon and tips the scales 
at from twenty to fifty pounds. 

It was to regulate this sport, establish a 
high standard, that I established this club, 
which has become famous the world over. 
The club has given tournaments to encourage 
the use of light tackle, and its influence has so 
spread over the world that nearly everywhere 
light rods and fine lines are now used. With 
such tackle I landed a 183-pound tuna. I 
killed a 95-pounder with a twelve-ounce yel- 
lowtail rod and a No. 18 line. I took a 17- 
pounder on an eight-ounce ten-foot Divine- 
made trout rod and an E enameled line. 
Others, among them Mr. T. McD. Potter, Col. 
John E. Stearns, Dr. Gifford Pinchot, Mr. J. 
E. Coxe, Mr. Boschen, and Mr. Arthur J. 
Eddy, took fishes of large size with No. 21, No. 
18 and No. 6 lines and so revolutionized the 
sport. 

The Tuna Club collaborated with a num- 
ber of clubs in America, France, and England 
to make this universal, and so the tackle re- 
form went around the world, and to-day the 
anglers of the Tuna Club all over the country 
have had the satisfaction of securing from the 
legislature a law recognizing Santa Catalina, 



26 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

or its shore and three miles off, as a spawning- 
ground; a movement not in the interest of the 
angler alone, but the consumer, as the market- 
men were, as is always the case, overdoing the 
netting and fast driving off the big market 
fish, particularly the leaping tuna, which was, 
before the netting, the great game fish here, 
but now is rare. It is expected that the non- 
netting law will bring them back.* 

All the angling done in Southern California 
waters is of this light tackle persuasion, and it 
has resulted in much new business for the 
great houses, as the rods demanded are the 
finest split bamboo, greenheart and noibwood 
(or hickory) , and of a light, small size. 

The Tuna Club advocates for the tuna and 
fish of over one hundred pounds a rod not over 
sixteen ounces in weight; the tip not less than 
six feet. The line permitted is of twenty- 
four strands, which has a breaking strength of 
two pounds to the strand; hence such a line 
will lift a dead weight of forty-eight pounds. 
This is seldom used. I took my 183-pound 
tuna with a twenty-one-thread line, the break- 
ing strength forty-two pounds. With this 
tackle the late Col. C. P. Morehous took a 

* The season of 1913, two months after the law went into 
effect, saw the finest yellow-nn tuna angling in ten years. 




Right view of reel in readiness, right thumb resting 

on the leather brake, left hand grasping 

upper cork grip. 




Tuna or Tarpon reel showing position of the thumb 
pressing the leather brake. 




Socket for the butt of the rod. 



TACKLE SUGGESTIONS 27 

251-pound tuna, and Mr. W. C. Boschen of 
New York in 19 13 took a 335-pound sword- 
fish (Xiphias), which is now the record fish 
of the Tuna Club and the world's record. 

The reel used in this sport is large, gener- 
ally an Edwin Vom Hof e make, and holds six 
hundred feet. Economy in tackle consists in 
buying the very best, and while a good outfit 
can be had for less money, the angler had 
better pay thirty or forty or more dollars for 
his reel, fifteen or twenty for the rod, and 
three or four for the line, as it will be put to 
the extreme test. The latest reels are as finely 
made as a watch and have abundant combina- 
tions — brakes, etc. The line for tuna or black 
sea bass should have a fine piano-wire leader 
eight or ten feet long, with several swivels, 
and the line for six or eight feet should be 
doubled. The hook is a No. 10 O'Shaugh- 
nessy, though if live bait is used it is smaller. 
If a flying fish or skipjack, it should be 
larger. 

The rods are beautifully made, of split bam- 
boo or noibwood, ironwood, greenheart, or 
hickory; have agate guides and just the right 
resiliency. The reel is set above the grip or be- 
tween the butt and the left-hand grip, and should 
be on the upper side of the rod. The reel should 



28 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

always be lashed onto the rod, and the line 
should be run out and wet before fishing, as 
the friction will set a dry line afire, and line 
and hopes will go up in smoke. Sometimes a 
lead sinker is used to get the line down if the 
fish are low, as the salmon generally are at 
Monterey. The butt of such a rod is twenty- 
four inches long, with a tip seven feet long. 
On the silver tip of the butt fits a rubber pad, 
something like the rubber tips on a chair or 
crutch, but they come flat. In playing a large 
fish the angler should have a leather belt with 
a butt cap and use this as a fulcrum. All 
launches are rigged with a leather cap, fast- 
ened to the seat between the angler's knees. 
Nearly all the very large fish are caught from 
the seat fulcrum or base. 

In this sea angling the tackle has a relation 
to the boat and is the result of evolution, the 
survival of the most desirable. The result is 
a perfect boat and perfect tackle, having in 
view absolute fair play and all the advantage 
on the side of the game. 

The Santa Catalina boat is a launch eighteen 
or twenty feet long and wide of beam, built 
for safety, not for speed. An eight- or ten- 
horse power gasoline engine is placed amid- 
ships, and the wheel is on the right rail on 



TACKLE SUGGESTIONS 29 

the inside, so that the boatman, who is also the 
gaffer, can sit with his right hand on the 
wheel, his left on the bar of the engine. The 
anglers must sit side by side, facing the stern 
and in it; one fishes to the right, the other to 
the left, and when either has a strike the boat- 
man stops the engine and the other angler 
reels in if it is desirable to give his friend the 
field. Then with the butt of his rod in the 
socket attached to the chair between his knees, 
the angler is in a position to play the largest 
game. 

This is the so-called tuna tackle. Then 
comes what is popularly known as " 9-9. " The 
line is a number nine. The term " 9" means 
that the line has nine threads or strands. Each 
strand having a breaking strength of two 
pounds; the entire line having a breaking 
strength of eighteen pounds. The rod must not 
weigh over nine ounces, nor can it be less than 
six feet in length. It is made of split bamboo, 
noibwood, greenheart, and various woods. A 
Shaver split bamboo " 9-9 " can be had for 
$20. It has agate guides and German silver 
mountings, and with it the angler can land a 
very large fish — up to one hundred pounds. 
Edwin Vom Hofe builds a " 9-9 " rod of noib- 
wood which costs from $10 to $14. Any reel 



30 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

can be used, but usually a smaller one is em- 
ployed that will hold 300 or 400 feet of No. 
9 line. 

Another grade of tackle in use by the Tuna 
Club in its tournaments, and invented by T. 
McD. Potter, a retired capitalist of Los An- 
geles, is known as " 3-6." Here the rod 
weighs six ounces. The rod cannot be less 
than six feet; the line has 6 strands, and a 
breaking strength of twelve pounds, which ex- 
plains the name " three-six"; viz., 6 feet, 6 
strands, and 6 ounces. With this extraordinary 
rod, like a trout rod cut off, I saw Dr. Gifford 
Pinchot play a giant yellowtail five hours; and 
fishes up to sixty pounds, and doubtless over, 
are taken with it, the idea of the club being to 
prevent the slaughter of game fish; as it is 
impossible to land a fish on this tackle within 
fifteen minutes or half an hour, the result is 
most satisfactory. 

The Tuna Club has a " sled " and a " kite 1 '* 
which are employed with the tuna tackle. The 
former is to keep the bait away from the boat 
in trolling, while the kite makes the bait imi- 
tate the leap of the living flying fish when 
that lure is used. Tunas and swordfishes are 
often taken in this manner when they will not 

* See pages 143 and 146 



TACKLE SUGGESTIONS 31 

touch anything else. This tackle is now used 
at Aransas Pass in the Gulf of Mexico, where 
nearly all the tarpon are taken on the " 9-9 " 
tackle of the Tuna Club. As it is based on 
sportsmanship and humanitarian ideas, it is 
gradually spreading over the country where 
sea angling holds. 

Surf casting, whether on the California or 
New Jersey coast, requires different methods, 
and a stiffer rod is employed so that a heavy 
bait can be cast a long distance out over the 
waves. The casting tackle on the Jersey coast 
for striped bass or channel bass is a stiff 16 
ounce or over rod; the line a No. 24 or No. 30, 
according to the angler's taste. 

The surf fish or roncador tackle on the sandy 
beaches of California, where the game is small 
or from one to three or four pounds, is a 9- 
ounce rod and No. 21 thread line or a No. 9 
line. 

Along the Florida coast and at Long Key 
Fishing Camp the all-around tackle used is 
tarpon tackle, so near the sixteen-ounce tackle 
of the Tuna Club that a description is unneces- 
sary. 

There are three general methods of angling 
deserving attention. 

First. — Trolling, when the bait, generally a 



32 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

fish or a bone jig or a spoon, is hauled or 
trolled after the boat from fifty to one hun- 
dred and fifty feet astern. If it is necessary 
to go fast, as for kingfish about Nassau, then 
a good pipe or wing sinker is needed to keep 
the bait down below the surface; but if the fish 
does not require speed to delude him, as in 
swordfish angling, a light one is used. 

Second. — Still fishing. This in California is 
when the angler sights a school of fish — yel- 
lowtail or mackerel — and keeps them about 
the boat by (chumming) tossing over broken- 
up fish. Here the angler reels in his line and 
casts, long or short, as the case may be, with 
or without a sinker. This is one of the most 
fascinating methods in California, as the water 
is perfectly smooth and one can pick out the 
fish he wants. 

Third. — Beach casting. Here the angler 
wades out into the surf with high boots or 
stands on the sands and casts. The rolling 
surf lends additional fascinaton to this method, 
which I have tried for the big Florida barra- 
cuda, channel bass, etc. 

There is another method employed by 
thousands — that of wharf fishing, and South- 
ern California has scores of angling piers 
along her coast, of no use for commerce, but 



TACKLE SUGGESTIONS 33 

patronized by anglers every day in the year. 
They use a long bamboo pole, with a stout 
line and many hooks, adapted to the height 
above the water. If a large fish is hooked 
the angler lowers down a grapnel and endeav- 
ors to hook the fish up, or gaff it. If it is too 
large to lift, it is led ashore and landed on the 
beach in the surf. 



CHAPTER III 

the new england grounds 

Group i 

the swordfish 
(Xiphias) 

IT remained for the Tuna Club to put the 
swordfish of two species on the angling 
map as a game fish. The first Tetrap- 
turus was taken with rod and reel by Mr. 
Llewellyn in 1896, and the first Xiphias by 
Mr. W. C. Boschen, a New York member, in 
19 13. The latter fish weighed 355 pounds 
and was one of three hooked by Mr. Boschen 
at Santa Catalina. 

The Xiphias, like the tuna, is really a world- 
wide roamer, but is not common, and I think 
it varies according to season. The two locali- 
ties where its catch can be depended upon, as a 
business, are south-eastern Massachusetts, 
around Block Island, and in the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, both, in all probability, spawning and 
feeding grounds for the fish. 

34 



NEW ENGLAND GROUNDS 35 

Within the past ten years a number of speci- 
mens of Xiphias have been taken in nets or 
harpooned in southern California waters, and 
in 19 13 the first one was taken with rod and 
reel. Xiphias is larger, heavier, and more bulky 
than Tetrapturus. It has a longer and wider 
sword and is more vicious. It attains a large 
size, running up to fourteen or fifteen feet, and 
a weight of one thousand pounds. Off the 
Massachusetts coast there is a fleet of schoon- 
ers which follow it and bring scores into the 
market at Boston, where they command a 
good price as a market fish. They are all 
taken with a harpoon or lily-iron. The 
schooners sail about, keeping a man in the 
foretop, who, on seeing a fish lying on the 
surface with dorsal out of water, sings out, 
and the man at the helm runs for it. There 
is a " rest" or nest on the end of the jibboom, 
and here the harpooner stands and hurls or 
" jabs " his lily-iron as the jibboom moves over 
the fish. This swordfish is ugly and vicious, 
and many accidents have occurred, the fish 
sending its sword through the heaviest planks, 
smashing dories. 

Up to date none of these fishes have been 
taken with a line in the Atlantic, but Dr. Gif- 
ford Pinchot hooked and played one four hours 



36 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

in 19 12, when it broke the steel wire leader. 
This swordfish preys upon mackerel, dashing 
into a school, cutting the fishes down with its 
sword, then picking up the silvery pieces. 

To try this game, either ship as a passenger 
on board one of the swordfish fishermen from 
Boston or go to Block Island or Santa Cata- 
lina and charter a cruising launch. When the 
fish is hooked get into a dory and play it to 
a finish, the launch following in case of acci- 
dent. 

Off Palm Beach and at Long Key Camp, 
Florida, there is an attractive little swordfish 
running up to 150 or so pounds. It rejoices 
in the title Histiophorus, and has an enormous 
dorsal fin, like a sail. This is a more or less 
common catch with tarpon tackle — a sixteen- 
ounce rod and a twenty-one or twenty-four 
line; but it can be, and should be, taken on 
" 9-9." This fish is beautifully colored and 
leaps in joy in the blue waters of the Gulf 
Stream. There are one or two other sword- 
fishes about Florida, where I have taken them 
with grains, but they are not common enough 
to mention. 

The big Xiphias has left a long trail of 
devastation in its wake, of wrecked ships and 
boats. The most interesting was the case of 



NEW ENGLAND GROUNDS 37 

the sloop " Red Hot." This vessel belonged 
to the U. S. Fish Commission; she was started 
upon a voyage of investigation, the Xiphias 
being one of the objectives, as at that time 
nothing was known of its young. The sword- 
fish tribe must have resented this. In any 
event, before she got well started, a big fellow 
rammed the " Red Hot," and, according to 
report, sent her to the bottom. 

For some reason the Atlantic tuna and the 
Atlantic swordfish attain a larger size than in 
California waters. The Florida sharks are of 
two or three times greater bulk than the sharks 
of California. Perhaps it is the heat. The 
waters of Florida are very warm, while those 
of California are cool. 

This difference in bulk has made this angling 
possible in California. The tunas here aver- 
age about one hundred and fifty pounds, and 
six and eight hundred pounders are very rare. 
So with the Xiphias. The average in the 
Atlantic is a six- or eight-hundred-pound fish, 
almost impossible to the angler with rod and 
reel, while the same fish in the Santa Catalina 
channel averages two hundred and fifty pounds, 
the rod record, by Mr. Boschen, being 355 
pounds. 

In angling for Xiphias, as it is out at sea, 



38 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

the fish should be hunted up, the tall dorsal fin 
being the beacon which it exposes when lying 
on the surface. Once found, the bait, a fresh 
mackerel, should be trolled across its path; the 
launch may go ahead and gradually slow down 
until the lure is just ahead. The line should 
have a ten-foot wire leader jointed with swivels 
at intervals. The hook should be generous — 
No. 10-12 — and when the strike comes, the 
swordfish should be given time, as he has a 
hard, bony, toothless jaw, difficult to hook. 
When playing the fish from the dory it is well 
for the oarsman to be an observing person, as 
some years ago, off Long Island, a man was 
sitting in his dory when up through the bottom 
came four feet of a swordfish rapier, nearly 
spitting him. This, of course, will but add to 
the zest of the chase in the eyes of the sea 
angler. This fish is taken at Santa Catalina 
by using the kite invented by Captain George 
Farnsworth. By using this, the flying fish bait 
is made to leap — a proceeding which excites 
the big swordfish. 

With the catching of this fish at Santa Cata- 
lina a new and exciting and risky sport has 
been discovered. The 355-pounder taken by 
Mr. Boschen repeatedly tried to ram the boat. 



Group 2 
the polilock and its friends 

IF I am not greatly mistaken, the finest of 
the inshore game fishes north of Cape 
Cod, the pollock, is neglected and not well 
known. We begin to hear of it north of Ports- 
mouth, and at the entrance of some of the 
rivers knowing ones angle for it. I do not 
know very much about the fish, just enough 
to commend it to the light-tackle angler as a 
fine, sturdy game fish. I knew it best at Ogun- 
quit, on the southeastern coast of Maine, 
where I fished for it from the rocks with my 
eight-ounce split bamboo trout or bass rod, 
using crab, lobster, shell, or fish bait. At the 
entrance of the little harbor, off the rocks, was 
the best ground, and here I made the discovery 
(to myself) that the pollock will take a fly. 
Doubtless someone else had made this wonder- 
ful discovery before, but it had not reached 
me, and one day, when I could find no crabs 
in the crevices, or was not active enough to 
catch them, I bethought me of a fly in my hat- 

39 



40 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

band, a relic of an angling trip to Blue Moun- 
tain Lake, in the Adirondacks, a few weeks 
previous. 

It was a dilapidated Royal Coachman, but 
as I cast and it sank a foot, up rose a splendid 
five- or six-pound pollock and seized it. I was 
so surprised that I broke my tip on him, and 
confess that I broke two more tips on these 
Ogunquit pollocks before I learned that they 
were too big and heavy, too hard fighters, for 
my trout rod. 

They made fine runs out to sea, nearly ex- 
hausting my reel; then would come in, like 
arrows from a bow, until they almost touched 
the rocks, to turn and dash away again, to 
the music of the reel, coming to the gaff or 
net only after a hard and splendid fight. 

Use an eight-ounce trout or black bass rod, 
E line not enameled (raw silk) ; a small hook, 
No. 6 O'Shaughnessy; a triple-gut leader, and 
crab bait, if you must, but a fly if you are a 
sportsman. 

So much for pollock, or coalfish, as the 
British Sea anglers call him. I know of fifty- 
four other names that he goes by, ranging 
from saithe to rock-salmon. All royalty are 
addicted to this multiplicity of names, and 
since the pollock, as we know him in America, 



NEW ENGLAND GROUNDS 41 

is a royal fellow, he should be allowed a hun- 
dred names if he can get them. The fish has 
a wide range in Northern Europe, up as far 
as Spitzbergen, and has been taken in the Baltic. 
Its American range may be said to be from 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Nantucket. 
It is found in schools, generally on the surface, 
and in a general way has the habit of the blue- 
fish, and its vigor. As a devourer of little 
fishes it is pre-eminent. 

The pollock ranges up to ten pounds, and 
six pounds is a good average, explaining its 
strength on a trout rod. " Down East," or 
along the Maine coast and the Bay of Fundy, 
the fishermen call it the " quoddy salmon," and 
it affords fine sport from the rocks. In Eng- 
land the members of the British Sea Anglers' 
Society prize it highly as the coalfish, and 
there is an Alaskan species also called the coal- 
fish by the Canadians. It comes south, and I 
have seen several specimens in the tanks of the 
Avalon, Santa Catalina, Aquarium. But it is 
rare and a straggler in these latter waters. 

In my experience the pollock deteriorates 
very rapidly when taken from the water, and 
if it is not salted it should be eaten as soon 
as possible. I commend it as a fine fly-taking 
game fish. 



42 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

When angling for pollocks you will take 
gurnards and sculpins, often ignorantly thrown 
away; but they are among the delicacies of the 
sea. The cod, hake, haddock, and halibut are 
taken in the deeper fields of the pollock, and 
a variety of small fry; also silver hake or 
whiting, the turbot, and the ling. The Cali- 
fornia hake is a good fish, taken by anglers 
in Monterey Bay when angling for salmon. 



Bluefish 




Porgy 




Striped Bass 



CHAPTER IV 

new york and new jersey grounds 

Group 3 
the striped bass and its friends 

ONE of the most successful instances of 
transplanting a fish is seen in the striped 
bass. The U. S. Fish Commission 
brought some striped bass to the Pacific coast 
some twenty years ago and placed them in 
the mouth of the Sacramento. They increased 
so rapidly that the fish is now one of the 
choice market fishes of California, a splendid 
addition to sport. Wanderers have reached 
Santa Catalina Island and Alamitos Bay, Los 
Angeles County, five hundred miles to the 
south. 

The striped bass is one of the most beauti- 
ful of all fishes, pure silver with longitudinal 
stripes. In general appearance it is sturdy, the 
ideal game fish, attaining a length of five feet 
and a weight, under the most favorable condi- 
tions, of one hundred pounds. 

"The stately Bass, old Neptune's fleeting Post 

That tides it out and in from sea to coast." 

43 



44 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

This bass unquestionably has decreased in 
numbers during the past century on the Atlan- 
tic coast, as formerly it was a common fish 
near the St. Lawrence and particularly off New 
Bedford. The striped bass clubs that were 
formerly maintained on the southeast New 
England coast have in many instances been 
given up. The striped bass has practically 
disappeared or is much smaller. If the New 
Englander would find his old game, I would 
suggest the Asbury Park Fishing Club, as here, 
on the Jersey coast, the striped bass is still 
found in all its former splendor, and is taken 
by casting from the beach and wading out into 
the surf. In New England the bass anglers 
had iron docks built out from the rocks over 
the breaking sea and played their game from 
the stand, the gaffer standing on the rocks 
below. The rod used was a twelve-ounce split 
bamboo or some good wood, heavy and stiff 
for casting the lure — that bonne bouche, the 
tail of a lobster (when lobsters were five cents 
apiece and menhaden was the "chum"). I 
have seen forty-pound striped bass taken 
through the ice at Fishkill, Hudson River, in 
February, which suggests the dual nature of 
the striped bass- — living in the ocean in sum- 
mer, going up the rivers in winter, and living 



NEW YORK GROUNDS 45 

about their mouths at all times. In a word, 
they do not migrate or go south or off shore at 
the approach of winter, but remain in one gen- 
eral location all the time. They are more or 
less gregarious in their food, lobster, clam, and 
crab ranking first; but I have taken them with 
menhaden and fish bait, and while crustaceans 
are the game of their choice, they will chase 
small fishes, as minnows, squid and shrimp, 
into the breakers. The striped bass spawns in 
May and June, often in rivers, but doubtless 
also at sea. The record rod fish, so far as 
known, is one taken at Cuttyhunk, weighing 
104 pounds. A 112-pounder, nearly six feet 
in length, was taken at Orlean, Mass., with 
a harpoon. 

The striped bass is the embodiment of 
power and strength, and when played, as at 
Cuttyhunk, from a pier chair, with the butt of 
the rod in a belt, with waves breaking all 
about, the sport is of a stimulating, exciting 
character. Pasque and Cuttyhunk of the Eliz- 
abeth Islands, between Buzzard's Bay and 
Martha's Vineyard, were formerly fine locali- 
ties. The members of the Asbury Park Fish- 
ing Club still find this fish in fair quantities and 
have famous sport along the coast wading out 
and casting, taking the game amid surround- 



46 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

ings calculated to arouse a fine sporting spirit. 

In San Francisco the striped bass is the 
game fish of the region. It has increased so 
that it is found all over the great bay and up 
in the flats, where it is taken trolling and still 
fishing. Specimens of eighteen or twenty 
pounds are not uncommon. 

On the Atlantic coast is found the sea bass, 
"Another gentleman among his finny com- 
rades," according to Frank Forester. This 
bass is a dark, leaden-hued fellow, with a light 
dorsal fin and a filament extending out from 
the upper tip of its tail. Like many fishes, it 
has many names, but where I have known it 
best — Fisher's Island and vicinity — it was the 
sea bass. Rock bass, blackwill, hannahell, blue- 
fish are other names, but sea bass suits it best. 
I frequented the dulcet waters near the en- 
trance to the Sound for the bluefish, and we 
took our bass with black bass tackle, an eight- 
ounce split bamboo, and lobster or crab for 
bait. 

A large sea bass is a very powerful fish, 
affording the angler sport, exercise, and enter- 
tainment of a varied character. This fish has 
a wide range. I have taken it in Massachu- 
setts, Virginia — at Old Point Comfort, in 
Florida, and I am told that it has been caught 



NEW YORK GROUNDS 47 

at Aransas Pass, Texas. I have also seen it 
it off Madison, Conn., and it has a habit of 
hovering about certain points or ledges. It is 
not a large or startling fish, but a good fighter. 
A pound or two is the average, and five or six 
pounds is a good fish. If I am not mistaken, 
I have seen ten-pounders brought into Madi- 
son. But I was not the angler, and I was 
" guessing." 

The sea bass is the fish of the people of 
New York, and steamers go out to the bass 
banks with crowds, lined up and down the rail, 
to angle for them. Many anglers pursue the 
sport, and no other, and have been at it half 
a century. These anglers use a short, thick- 
set club rod, made for the purpose, and a big 
reel, often an English " wood winch," as the 
bass are taken in deep water. When the 
steamer finds the place off Long Branch she 
stops; the sea bass soon begin to come in and 
are hoisted out of the deeps. 

The fishing ground is Cholera Banks, about 
twenty miles from Sandy Hook. Another fav- 
orite ground extends from off Navesink down 
the coast as far as Squam. This is fishing, in 
contradistinction to angling. The water is 
fifty, sixty or more feet deep, so a heavy sinker 
is essential, taking the lure down quickly to the 



48 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

region of sea bass, blackfish, fluke, rock cod, 
porgy, weakfish, and many more, by whom a 
hard clam or menhaden bait is not to be de- 
spised. At Charleston, South Carolina, there 
is a smaller species of sea bass, and here the 
angler may take the beautiful squirrel-fish, also 
of the sea bass tribe. The tautog or blackfish 
is often confused with the sea bass, as both are 
called blackfish in certain parts of Long Island 
Sound. One, the tautog or chogset, is a very 
different fish and a kinsman of the beautiful 
parrot-fishes of the South. Certain species 
were greatly esteemed by the ancient Greeks 
and Romans. " Brains of Jove," Numa called 
the scarus. In a general way the fish ranges 
in shallow water from New Brunswick to 
South Carolina, being the fish of the people in 
New England, where it is known as the tautog, 
a Narragansett word, but in New York it is 
the blackfish, in Virginia the chub, in the Caro- 
linas the oyster-fish. 

When I was a boy this fish was taken in 
great numbers from the Red and Nahant 
rocks with long bamboo poles. The small 
fishes were called " nippers," a term which 
should apply to the real nippers; and nipper 
parties, in which ladies and whole families 
took part, near " Tudors," were the vogue. A 



NEW YORK GROUNDS 49 

long slender bamboo rod to reach out over the 
water, a light line, small hook, and almost any 
bait will lure this fish, which makes a vigorous 
fight when given fair play with light tackle. 
It is a game little fish from half a pound up 
to two or three, occasionally more, and one of 
the best edible fishes of New England. 

"When chestnut leaves are as big as thumbnails, 
Then bite blackfish without fail; 
But when chestnut leaves are as large as a span, 
Then catch blackfish if you can." 

In other words, the tautog is a summer fish, 
but does not go far from its haunts in winter. 

The chogset, cunner or bergall, is a summer 
fish, and under the title of nipper is taken from 
the Nahant, Lynn, and Cape Ann rocks, as in 
the case of the sea bass. Back in the seventies 
I spent the summer on the Maine coast, near 
Mouse Island. As only one fish was to be 
had from the rocks, we organized the Nipper 
or Cunner Club, and Dan Beard and I fought 
piscatorial battles for the presidency. 

The nipper {Ctenolabrus) is a long, slen- 
der, light-green little fish, with a long sea bass- 
like dorsal. It swims by its pectoral fins, like 
the parrot-fishes, and has an inordinate passion 
for soft clams; hence anyone can take it on 



50 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

light tackle, and it is a very delicious little fish. 
My first angling was had on Red Rock, 
Lynn, standing among the flying spume, when 
the sea was on, fishing for nippers, gradually 
retreating, as the tide rose, before the great 
waves which, at the flood, often drove us to 
the land. Fried cunners cooked in the old 
Nahant fashion ought to go down the ages 
with white bait, Santa Catalina sand-dabs, and 
the murries of Caesar. 



Group 4 
the channel bass, porgy, etc. 

ONE of the finest game fishes in Ameri- 
can waters is the channel bass, or red 
drum; just as game by any other name, 
and he has one for every State from New 
York to Texas, and some to spare. I have 
angled for him off Asbury Park, N. J., at Old 
Point Comfort, in the entrance to the St. 
Mary's, in Georgia with fiddler-crab bait, at 
the mouth of the St. John's, at Mayport, 
where the ebb tide is so violent that my heavy 
sinker floated, and again in shallow pools in- 
side Aransas Pass, Texas, and everywhere 
the fish is game, good, and wholly acceptable 
if not murdered on heavy tackle. 

The channel bass may be known at once by 
the spot on his tail like a big period. Ran- 
dolph describes him in verse as 

"Long as a salmon, if not so stout, 
And springy and swift as a mountain trout." 
51 



52 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

The fish has a superficial resemblance to the 
salmon, and has a very wide range in many 
waters. He is a bottom-loving fish; hence is 
found in the surf along sandy beaches, and is 
one of the great game fishes of the famous 
Asbury Park Club. In Florida I found good 
fishing in the St. John's River, at the mouth, 
using fiddler-crabs for bait, a nine-ounce split 
bamboo rod, a No. 9 line, and triple-gut leader. 
I had the promise of a fifty-pounder and caught 
one of twenty or thirty pounds, and a harder 
fighting fish it would be difficult to find. The 
moment I had a strike, out into the stream 
would go the fish, plunging down and up, in 
and out, in a series of gyrations which, when 
taken in conjunction with the tide, made hard 
work. 

The best fishing for this game creature is on 
the Jersey coast, in the surf, where the anglers 
wade in and with stiff rods cast far out into the 
boiling water. A No. 21 or a No. 24 linen 
line is the thing for this work, a good multi- 
plying reel, a 10/0 hook, and fairly heavy 
sinker. Clam or crab bait is commended by 
experts. At Old Point Comfort I used soft 
shell crabs, " shedders," which old Sandy used 
to peddle around at two-bits a dozen, yelling 
at his mule, "Wat I feed yo' fo'?" 



NEW YORK GROUNDS 53 

The Jersey anglers speak of the fish as the 
channel bass, but in Texas he is the drum. The 
term drum comes from the sound the fish 
makes, due to its curious air-bladder. In Texas 
I found the fish in holes in shallow water, often 
among the reeds or tulles, and here shrimp 
was the bait, or young mullet. 

There is a certain amount of expectancy in 
this sport, as one always hopes to hook the 
one-hundred-pounder that is said to have been 
seen, but fifty pounds is large for the fish and 
the average is under twenty pounds. In ap- 
pearance the channel bass is very attractive, as 
its upper scales are bronzed and often of a 
deep-red hue. Some fishes have two spots 
instead of one. In the same general localities 
the angler will find the black drum fish, which 
attains a weight of eighty or more pounds. 
The banded drum fish is the young of this 
species. 

The sheepshead is an interesting fish that 
wanders up to twenty or more pounds in old 
specimens, and with its twelve or thirteen black 
and white vertical stripes is very attractive, 
while its high-domed shape makes it a hard 
fighter. It has a very wide range from Block 
Island to the Rio Grande. I believe I have 
taken it in every State alongshore; but, as I 



54 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

recall it, Florida holds the palm for numbers. 
I have had my best sport with this fish with 
an eight-ounce rod, eight or more feet in 
length. 

In angling for these fishes the true game 
qualities are lost by the use of heavy and really 
unreasonable tackle or hand lines. A five- 
pound fish has no chance on a sixteen-ounce 
rod, any more than a one-pound trout on a 
nine-ounce rod. 



Group 5 
the weakfish and others 

ON the New England coast most of the 
well-known fishes were given Indian 
names. One, the squeteague, is one of 
the most appreciated fishes in the country, as 
its family or allies include some of the really 
great game fishes of the world, from the weak- 
fish of New York and the great white sea bass 
of California to the Kabeljou of Cape Colony. 
All and many more belong to the clan Cynos- 
cion. 

The majority of anglers who go down New 
York bay a-fishing, are weakfish anglers. You 
may find the species nobile from New York to 
the Gulf of Mexico, and everywhere it is a fine 
fish appealing alike to the angler and the epi- 
cure. It is called " sea-trout," as it looks very 
much like a lusty steelhead trout, with its sil- 
very sides and fine spots; and in its best condi- 
tion the fish is not far behind this great game 
fish of the sea and river. 

55 



56 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

Each state on the Atlantic seaboard glories 
in the possession of this fish, and each has a 
different name for it. Around Nantucket it is 
the drummer. President Cleveland and Joe 
Jefferson fished for " yellow-fin " in Buzzard's 
Bay. At Old Point, Virginia, my boatman 
took me out after bluefish. In Georgia my 
man gave me sea-trout; on the St. Mary's 
" spot." But it was all the same fish, the sque- 
teague or weakfish. When the bluefish season 
is a great success the weakfish are not out in 
force, or vice versa. I have often been told 
this, and it may be that it is not so ; but the two 
fishes have very much the same habit though 
the bluefish is the hardest fighter. 

Professor Baird wrote of the weakfish as 
follows: "The sport of catching the Sque- 
teague is very great, and is highly enjoyed by 
many fishermen, on account of the great number 
that can be taken in a very short time. They 
swim near the surface and require a line but 
little leaded. They take almost any kind of 
bait, especially clams, soft crabs or pieces of 
fish. They take the hook with a snap, rarely 
condescending to nibble, and constant vigilance 
is necessary, as well as extreme care in hauling 
them out of the water, on account of the ex- 
treme tenderness of the mouth. During the 



NEW YORK GROUNDS 57 

flood tide they keep in the channel-ways of the 
bays, and at the ebb they generally settle in 
some deep hole, where they remain until the 
flood entices them out again. In the night 
they are much in the habit of running up the 
creeks in the salt meadows, where they are 
sometimes, taken in great numbers by interpos- 
ing between them and the sea, just before the 
period of high water. This experiment is not 
very satisfactory on the coast of New Jersey, 
in consequence of the abundance of crabs. The 
smaller fish become gilled in the net-meshes, 
thus inviting the attacks of the crabs, which cut 
the nets to pieces, often ruining them in a single 
night." 

I have had ideal sport at the old fort at the 
entrance of the St. Mary's River. Between 
the town and the fort is a fiddler-crab town, 
and not far away sea-trout are found, affording 
splendid sport. I have also taken them in the 
St. John's at Mayport and Pilottown. I well 
remember the porgies, fine sea-trout, the big 
channel bass, and the enormous sharks I hooked 
from the beach, with the Minorcans, near Pilot- 
town, and one day a huge sunfish sailed into the 
river and ran aground on the bar where we 
wrecked it, after the fashion of the country. 
(1876). 



58 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

The bluefish is occasionally found with the 
squeteague, sometimes as a boon companion, 
and again as a pursuer and false friend. It 
can truly be said that the bluefish is the finest 
game fish of the sea in New England waters, 
and that it is thoroughly game, and a hard 
and fierce contestant. Its entire appearance 
indicates the game fish, strength, agility and 
quickness, and when we add to these qualifica- 
tions ferocity we have the bluefish, one of the 
hardest fighters in the Seven Seas. 

The bluefish is blue above and silver below. 
His eye is big, lustrous and beautiful. When 
he sweeps in out of the unknown, an invading, 
exterminating army, the whole country knows 
it, as aside from being a game fish par excel- 
lence, it is a dish from the gods when broiled 
just out of the water. Years ago when I went 
to Fisher's Island to try the bluefish with rod 
and reel I lived at a little inn near the landing, 
where the attraction was the negro cook who 
specialized on bluefish. The fish were caught 
hardly six hundred feet distant, rushed in, and 
I was awakened by hearing them flopping 
about in the wheelbarrow as my man wheeled 
them up. 

This was the signal to rise, and half an 
hour later to the dot came, " Bluefish am 
served, sah!" I was there, and if the en- 



NEW YORK GROUNDS 59 

vious shade of Lucullus was not hovering about 
I am greatly mistaken. My Yankee taste may 
be perverted, but bluefish, fresh mackerel, shad 
shad roe, and Atlantic salmon, are in a class 
by themselves, and if the angling reader does 
not know them fresh, as above, he has never 
eaten them at their best. 

The bluefish is found well distributed over 
the globe, a wanderer in many seas, but it ar- 
rives in New England in May or June and re- 
mains until October; its movements, to some 
extent, depending upon those of the menhaden, 
its natural prey. The bluefish apparently does 
not like water colder than 40°, nor is it at home 
in the Tropics. In the cold months it probably 
goes to some offshore deep-water-ground as it 
slopes into the deep Atlantic. The fishes are 
subject to singular migrations and appear in a 
certain place one year and do not visit the lo- 
cality again for ten years. Off Block Island, 
the entrance to Long Island Sound, around 
Nantucket, is a summer home of the fish, and 
here hundreds of fishermen enjoy the sport of 
trolling for bluefish in catboats, with a hand- 
line and jig. The fresh breeze, the blue water, 
the pure air, the overpowering strength of the 
fish makes the sport exciting and in a class by 
itself. 

The bluefish is one of the finest rod catches 



60 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

known. It ranks with the California yellow- 
tail. The Santa Catalina Island launches 
should be introduced in the East as they are 
seaworthy and made to meet the exact require- 
ments of the bluefish, which has many of the 
habits of the yellowtail. Usually the boat is 
anchored, and menhaden (chum) chopped fine 
are thrown over to attract them. The angler 
may use his taste regarding rods, but a nine- 
ounce rod eight feet long, with a 9 line and No. 
10/0 hook, with piano-wire leader is sufficient 
as the fish does not run over fifteen pounds and 
the average fish weighs about seven or eight. 
A strip of menhaden, a bone jig, a pearl jig, 
or any small fish is used. 

Around New York the young bluefish are 
favorites among anglers, who call them snap- 
pers and take them with a trout rod, No. 6 
linen line, click reel, No. 4 hook. The little 
fishes make a remarkable fight. 



CHAPTER V 

THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 

GROUP 6 

THE BIG BARRACUDA 

WHEN the angler arrives in Florida, as 
he now can with the ease and com- 
fort of well-equipped Pullman cars, 
he finds among the marine game fishes a long 
slender fish that calls to mind the muscallunge. 
It is the big barracuda, the muscallunge of the 
sea, a totally different fish, but just as game, a 
fierce, and hard fighter. Barracudas can be 
found all over the world, but this species, 
(Sphyraena barracuda) is a giant running up to 
sixty or seventy pounds, more or less, and from 
four to six feet in length ; in his prime condition 
calculated to give the angler a splendid contest. 
In appearance he looks the piratical part he 
plays on the Florida reef. He is a wrecker, 
a cannibal. He is greenish above, silvery be- 
low, with big black eyes, a long rakish jaw filled 

61 



62 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

with sharp fang-like teeth. He might be a 
shark, and, according to Jordan, is in some 
waters, a menace to bathers. 

If the angler goes down to the sea with a 
rope or a club rod for this fish he may be dis- 
appointed; also the fish will not shine as a 
fighter if taken on a big cod-line on a bone jig, 
though if he is big enough and the launch is go- 
ing too fast he will almost pull a man out of a 
boat. But if one goes out with a nine-ounce 
seven-foot rod, with just the right sort of 
resiliency to give the fish fair play, yet lift him; 
if a No. 9 line and a No. 10 hook, with mullet 
bait or some shiny fish is used and the game is 
played from a dinghy or small boat, the angler 
will have the time of his life with the big bar- 
racuda. 

I am told that great numbers are taken at 
Long Key Camp and all along the upper 
Florida coast, but my home was at Garden 
Key, Tortugas, sixty miles beyond Key West, 
where the big fish lived in the deep blue chan- 
nels and the smaller ones on the shallow reef. 
Here I waded for them with my light tackle 
and enjoyed the true delights of barracuda ang- 
ling, though I am not throwing cold water on 
the big fish which I took in the channels troll- 
ing. The argument I make is, that more sport 



; : 



Black Grouper 




Great Barracuda 




Pompano 




Hog Fish 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 63 

is had from a dinghy or small boat, where the 
fish has a chance to pull his enemy overboard 
and reduce his pride. 

Nearly all fishes will sound when hooked 
in deep water, and the angler must pump them 
up, whether it be tuna, black sea bass or blue- 
fish. But on a shallow reef, where the water 
was not over ten feet deep and mostly four 
feet, I played the ten and twenty-pound bar- 
racudas and found them the finest of fighters. 
Five and six-pounders are often found in the 
shallows, and I commend for them an eight- 
ounce trout rod with live bait. 

This Florida fish, (and he ranges all over 
the Gulf region) in a general way, is a solitary; 
that is, he is not found in a school, and to see 
and watch him, as I have many times, sneak up 
on a school of mullet is worth while. He 
stalks them as a tiger does its prey, and plays 
with the victim as a cat will a mouse. I have 
seen a young barracuda catch a sardine by the 
tail and hold it ten minutes without moving, ap- 
parently to enjoy its struggles. 

The California barracuda, S. argentea, is 
caught in great numbers in the Santa Catalina 
channel, in schools. It comes in from the outer 
sea in April or May in vast schools; in a sense, 
breaks up, and is found with yellowtail, and 



64 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

is caught in the same manner — with a nine- 
ounce rod, number nine line though the 3-6 
tackle, previously referred to, is the best. I 
have taken these fish at twelve or fifteen pounds 
and had what might be termed sport; but on 
heavier tackle the fish soon gives up and dis- 
plays an amiable desire to come aboard. It is 
only fair, however, to this barracuda, to say 
that he is nearly always taken when angling for 
larger game and considered a nuisance. If the 
angler is using very light tackle he will find 
the fish better than nothing, and as an edible 
fish he ranks with the first fish families of Cali- 
fornia. 

Another small species of barracuda Sphy- 
raena borealis is found along the South At- 
lantic coast, but rarely caught or seen by the 
average angler. The British sea anglers off 
Cape Town include among their game fishes a 
small barracuda, and off Portugal one hears of 
Aflalo catching the " bicuda," probably a cousin 
of our grim, ugly fellow of the Florida and 
Bahama reefs. 



Group 7 
sailfish and amber- jack 

WE read of the Paradise of the angler, 
and the writer, who really loves fish- 
ing, falls into the habit of calling 
every place where he has had good luck a 
paradise. Along comes a victim, lured by the 
description and has the antipodes of this luck 
and does not see where the description fits. 
But Florida, and the Santa Catalina channel, 
including San Clemente, California, may truth- 
fully be given this term, due to the great variety 
of fishes and the splendid sport to be had. 

The Tuna Club, as stated in a previous 
chapter, now counts the swordfish in the class 
with the tuna and admits anglers who take a 
fish weighing 200 pounds with rod and reel to 
their active membership list. They have 'a 
swordfish insignia which the victorious angler 
can wear if he is so disposed, all of which sug- 
gests not vain display, but the respect with 
which the swordfish is held by these veterans of 
the rod and reel. 

In Florida there are three distinct species 
65 



66 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

of swordfish,* one of which belongs to the Santa 
Catalina genus (Tetrapturus imperator). An 
other is known as the Cuban swordfish {Tet- 
rapturus amplus), which I have taken with the 
grains after a hard fight; while the third (Is- 
tiophorus nigricans), is the common catch of 
the reef and of the anglers at Long Key Camp, 
upper Florida, and is a relative of the great 
sailfish of the Indian Ocean, which attains a 
length of twenty or thirty feet and has a dorsal 
fin that when erect resembles the sail of a boat 
painted after the Venetian fashion. These 
magnificent fish are harpooned by the natives of 
Madagascar and often wreck the boats and kill 
the men. An American consul saw one leap 
through the sail of a native proa— and de- 
scribed the flight to me. 

The fish in Florida is called spearfish, sail- 
fish, aguja voladora and by other names, but it 
is a swordfish, and like its African cousin, has a 
magnificently colored fin nearly as long as the 
fish and rising like a sail above it. Here the 
resemblance ceases as it rarely attains a weight 
of two hundred pounds, the average being one 
hundred, which makes it a good game fish for 
the rod and reel. 

The fish appears to like the warm waters of 



♦Some are called sailfishes, others spearfishes, but all 
are really swordfishes in the use of their weapon. 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 67 

the Gulf Stream as they sweep up the coast and 
are often found in schools. Down the reef 
(Tortugas) they are not so common, nor have 
I ever noticed them in very shallow water. The 
approved method is to anchor, as at Palm 
Beach, off the pier, and cast with live bait or 
troll from a launch. The tackle should be a 
9-ounce, 6 or 8-foot rod, No. 9 line, or if de- 
sirable the typical old-fashioned tarpon tackle, 
a 16-ounce rod and No. 24 line; to use a larger 
line would be to take an unfair advantage of 
the game. 

The fish is very active, a great jumper at 
all times, and when hooked makes a savage 
play about the boat, folding its big fin flat; but 
sometimes when hooked in deep water it erects 
this sail and to lift the fish against it is a most 
back-breaking operation. With a " 9-9 " tackle 
a one hundred-pound fish should be taken in 
less than thirty minutes. Every day in season 
these fishes are taken off Palm Beach and other 
localities, especially at Long Key Camp, in the 
center of a wonderful angling region. 

Caught in the same waters and under similar 
conditions is the Florida yellowtail or amber- 
jack. It is a typical Santa Catalina yellowtail, 
only heavier and deeper, this and other pecu- 
liarities making it a totally different species. 
The California fish is longer, more slender, 



68 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

more graceful and attractive, and known as 
Seriola dorsalis from its long dorsal fin. The 
Florida species is Seriola lalandi. It is one of 
the finest of all game fishes; fights to a finish; is 
not caught until it is in the boat, and is a master 
of strategy, finesse and bulldog strength. Fifty, 
sixty or eighty pounders are taken off the coast, 
and if the angler uses fair tackle he will have 
the time of his life. Specimens of this fish 
have been taken weighing nearly one hundred 
pounds. The largest specimens will be six feet 
in length, a ponderous game to handle on any 
tackle. 

Ideal fishing for amber-fish is that from a 
drifting rowboat or a boat held by the oarsman 
and allowed to drift; but often, as at Palm 
Beach, the boat is anchored beyond the surf. 
If large fish are desired it is better to use a 
tarpon rod, sixteen ounces, and No. 21 line 
and No. 10 hook, with live mullet or some 
attractive fish. The amber-fish is also taken 
trolling. The angler should wear a leather 
socket belt, if a light rod is used, into which he 
can insert the butt of the rod, and stand and 
play the fish. If a heavy rod is employed he 
should have a socket screwed onto the seat; 
this is necessary in playing a large fish though 
of course the butt can be placed under the leg. 
A good contrivance when using the light rods, 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 69 

advocated in this book, is the flat rubber tip for 
the butt of the rod. In using this the angler 
can stand in the boat and press the rubber 
against the body and employ it as a fulcrum. 
In all these rods the reel is on the upper side 
and above the right hand grip, and has a left 
hand smaller grip of cork or cord above the 
reel. 

If the weather permits, the angler who goes 
outside of Biscayne Bay should insist on a light 
boat being towed or carried, and when the am- 
ber-fish are found, at Fowey Rock Light or 
elsewhere, the angling should be done from the 
small boat, or the angler can sit in the small 
boat facing the stern, his boatman at the oars, 
ready. When the strike comes (assuming that 
they are trolling from a launch) the painter 
is cast off and the fish is played from the small 
boat. 

The amber-fish has the habit of a number of 
large fishes, as the yellowtail, white sea bass 
and others. It will lie beneath a school of an- 
chovies, sardines, or bluefish, and while it does 
not appear to molest them if the angler will 
drop his hook into the throng and can hook one 
of the small fry, it is almost certain that the 
amber-fish will take it. Few if any of the 
Florida fishes makes the splendid and vigorous 
play of this silver, green and yellow game. 



GROUP 8 

THE SMALL GAME FISHES OF FLORIDA 

IN drifting over the Florida reef from Log- 
gerhead to the St John's the angler is al- 
ways finding some new and interesting 
game, and a volume could be filled with descrip- 
tions of them. Two interesting fishes impress 
themselves on the memory. One is the lady 
fish, Albiila vulpes, found also in California. 
This fish can be taken trolling or still fishing, 
and it requires very fine tackle though it attains 
a length of three feet and a weight of twelve 
pounds. It is a long slender, slippery, sardine- 
like fish, built something like a tarpon, with a 
powerful tail which enables it to take stupen- 
dous leaps often amazing the angler. 

The other fish is the ten-pounder, Elops sail- 
rus; a silvery, long-headed fish which also at- 
tains a length of three feet or so and maximum 
and not unusual weight of ten pounds. To 
catch the fish it is well to hunt out some one 
who knows its particular haunts, as it is a weird 

70 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 71 

creature, often found coming in onto shallow 
flats with the flood-tide, its big dorsals out of 
the water, yet so timid that the slightest noise 
will alarm it. 

A good stiff eight-ounce split bamboo black- 
bass rod ten feet in length is the tackle, with a 
No. 6 line if you wish to give the game fair 
play. The hook should be a No. 3/0 or No, 
4/0 with a long double or twisted gut leader, 
The bait of its liking is fiddlers, spirit crabs 
or even the red grapsus, or the soldier crab, 
and I have taken them with crayfish. They 
come in like mullet, in schools, but not stirring 
up the mud, and when hooked, they make a 
splendid, even remarkable play for so small a 
fish. Gregg gives Norris Cut, Bears Cut, 
Soldier Key and various passes as good locali- 
ties on the east coast. 

These two fishes will afford the angler no 
end of pleasure, as to take them requires skill 
and prescience of the angling variety, and they 
never will be taken unless the angler knows 
something about their habits. By this I mean 
that an angler could not learn to take a ten- 
pounder from a " correspondence school " or 
from a book. He must find out from some 
one who knows where they are found and then 
watch them. 



72 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

There are scores of grunts in Florida waters, 
charming little fishes if taken with light tackle. 
Then come the snappers, — mangrove, gray, red 
and many more; beautiful fishes calling to mind 
the black bass, having all its game qualities 
and beauty. The red snapper I would not in- 
clude as a game fish as it is taken only in deep 
water. The king of the snappers from the 
angling standpoint is the gray snapper, Luti- 
anus griseus, to my mind one of the most at- 
tractive of all fishes and certainly the cleverest, 
and in my experience the most difficult to catch. 
I fished for it daily for several years, winter 
and summer, on the extreme outer Florida reef, 
hence this opinion is based on mature experi- 
ence. 

In weight the gray snapper runs up, though 
rarely, to twenty pounds; the average catch is 
from three to six pounds. A six-ounce split 
bamboo with a No. 6 line, small but stout hook, 
sardine or crayfish bait. I used a very fine cop- 
per leader three or four feet long that would 
settle in the sand, and often took them by 
manipulating the bait. When the gray snap- 
per is hooked it makes an incomparable play, 
if one remembers that it must have light tackle. 

With the snappers I would class the beauti- 
ful little yellowtail, Ocyurus chrysurus, a dainty 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 73 

little creature ranging up to three or four 
pounds. I always found it outside the break- 
ers in groves of coral and gorgonias or sea fans. 
A five-ounce trout rod is fair for this fine little 
game fish that is known as the rabirubia at Key 
West and which is one of the delicious pan 
fishes of the region, a hard fighter and gallant 
game. 

With the yellowtail comes the angel- and 
parrot-fishes, all brilliant and beautiful. Both 
must have a very small but very strong hook 
as the parrot-fish particularly will bite off the 
shank of the average hook. These wonderful 
fishes — the black angel, the green parrot — ■ 
make a remarkable play and will repay the ang- 
ler. If he is told they will not bite he must 
disregard it and use hooks advised, and dis- 
cover two of the finest of the small game fishes 
of Florida. 

There is another yellowtail caught here, 
Bairdiella chrysura, also the Catalineta or 
bandfish, and the sumptuous porgy {Calamus) 
of several kinds, and the little bream (Lago- 
don) are all game fishes if taken with light 
rods. 

One of the most sturdy of all these fishes 
is the tripletail, Lobotes, which is taken up to 
ten or twelve pounds. No. 9 line, No. 4 hook, 



74 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

shrimp or crab bait. This fish has a wide 
range, and at times is common in the Chesa- 
peake Bay where thirty pounders have been 
caught by anglers. 

The common chub, Kyphosus, is no mean 
game. It has a very small mouth, which ex- 
plains why so few are taken with rod and reel 
as grunt and snapper hooks are altogether too 
large for it and a very small No. 2 hook, but 
stout, should be used, and a small bait, the red 
meat of crayfish preferred. I have taken this 
fish up to eight pounds and include it, so far as 
my own experience goes, with the finest of the 
game fishes. It has no little individuality and 
swims with a vigorous and powerful movement 
of the tail. 

One of the most interesting of the Florida 
fishes is the large mouth, brilliantly colored 
hogfish, Lachnolaimus falcatus, the courtier of 
the reef. It is a fine game fish when treated 
properly; that is, caught with light tackle, a six- 
ounce rod and a No. 6 line, a large hook No. 5, 
crayfish bait. It is also one of the fine table 
fishes of Florida. In appearance it is most 
striking; a brilliant red color, its three first dor- 
sal spines very long, and all its fins long and 
exaggerated. 

I have always found the fish in rather deep 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 75 

water in coral patches on the sides of channels. 
A ten-pounder will be a revelation to the man 
with a rod, though the average fish is not over 
four pounds. 

I can wish the angler with light tackle no 
better game than the pompano, which is found 
here in great numbers, and whether on the line 
or on the table, is a joy forever. 



Group 9 
the tarpon 

THE tarpon, owing to its high and lofty 
jumping habits, is one of the best known 
of the marine game fishes. It is a giant 
herring and looks the part. Its large scales, 
five inches across, its extraordinary mouth, its 
big eyes, near the top of the head, its mail 
of silver, are all features that add to its spec- 
tacular appearance. 

The tarpon ranges up to four hunderd 
pounds and attains a length of seven feet or so. 
It is a migratory fish and in great bands moves 
up and down the Atlantic coast of North 
America from the northern coast of South 
America, British and Dutch Guiana to New 
York, its northern limit for numbers being the 
St. John's River. For many years the habits 
of the tarpon were unknown, but it is now 
known to winter in the Panuco River in the 
vicinity of Tampico, Mexico, and doubtless in 
many other streams. Here it is found in vast 
numbers and affords fine sport. In early spring 

76 




Tarpon 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 11 

it begins to move north, arriving at Aransas 
Pass, Texas, in April or May, affording excel- 
lent sport at the Tarpon Club in the pass up to 
November when it goes south to winter. 

The tarpon reaches Florida and the other 
Gulf localities about the same time and enters 
the rivers where it is supposed to spawn. As 
to this nothing is really known, but a few of the 
very young have been seen in rivers in Porto 
Rico. It is known that the adult tarpon will 
spend months in the summer in fresh water and 
in springs at the head of rivers (Florida). 

At all times the tarpon readily takes fish 
bait, mullet or sardine, and as it is, as a rule, 
caught in shallow water it leaps and affords 
magnificent sport. It is taken by fishing on the 
bottom (still fishing) or by trolling (dragging 
the bait). The modern tackle, devised by the 
Tuna Club, and introduced at Aransas Pass by 
Mr. L. P. Streeter, is a nine-ounce, six- or seven- 
foot rod, a No. 9 line; the leader, of piano- 
wire with links of brass swivels, is fastened to 
a No. 10 hook. The bait is a half or whole 
mullet — the bonne bouche of the tarpon. 

The first tarpon I hooked at Port Aransas, 
I had out not over twenty or thirty feet of 
line ; yet the fish took it and when hooked went 
into the air higher than my head, so I was 



78 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

obliged to look up, and over my right shoulder 
to see this swinging dervish of a fish high in 
air. 

How high a tarpon will leap I do not know, 
but ten or fifteen feet up and thirty horizontally 
would not be too much to accord it, and I have 
seen ten high successive leaps. All, or nearly 
all the photographs of tarpon seen are forced 
or the result of holding the fish on a short hand- 
line and photographing it from the same or an- 
other boat, and are more or less facsimiles of 
the legitimate leap when on the No. 9 line, and 
nine-ounce rod. 

Tarpon fishing is found at Tampico in win- 
ter; Port Aransas in summer, Galveston and at 
many of the Gulf of Mexico or Florida resorts, 
as Boca Grande, Sarasola, Useppa Island, Long 
Key, St. Petersburg, Punta Rassa, Fort Meyers, 
and other places in Florida. 

The tarpon is more dangerous than a shark, 
as should it land in a boat after a wild leap 
the wise angler would take to the water to 
escape the terrific blows of the silver-scaled tail, 
sufficient to break a man's back or leg. Meth- 
ods differ in different localities and the angler 
will do well to secure the services of the best 
guide or boatman and take his advice entirely 
until he has mastered the art of curbing a 150- 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 79 

pound " silver king" with a nine-ounce rod and 
a No. 9 line. 

There are three angling clubs which make 
a speciality of tarpon: the Izaac Walton Club 
of Useppa Island, Florida, the St. Petersburg, 
Florida, Tarpon Club and the Tarpon Club of 
Port Aransas on the Texan coast. The latter 
club was founded by Mr. L. P. Streeter, secre- 
tary of the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina Island, 
who went to Texas to introduce the fair play 
light tackle of the Tuna Club. He demon- 
strated that heavy rods and lines are not neces- 
sary, and to-day the great game fish is taken with 
rods and lines described, and beautiful cups and 
trophies are offered for the winners in the vari- 
ous classes which are sport. When the first 
vessels are passing the Panama Canal an at- 
tempt will be made by California anglers to 
float a one hundred-foot car filled with tarpon 
from the Gulf of Mexico into the Pacific 
Ocean. It is estimated that tarpon would swim 
north as far as Santa Catalina Island and pos- 
sibly the Bay of Monterey. 



Group io 
the jewfish and black grouper 

ONE would hardly include the great 
Florida jewfish among the game fishes, 
yet it affords a certain amount of sport 
at times on the rod. It is an entirely different 
fish from the black sea bass of Santa Catalina, 
being a big ungainly grouper living on the bot- 
tom preferably in mud holes. The maximum 
weight is six or eight hundred pounds, and I 
have heard of goliaths that reached one thou- 
sand pounds. It is found all along the coast of 
the Mexican Gulf and in the Bahamas, and is 
known as Junefish, guasa, mero and by other 
names, and is the Promicrops gansa of 
science. The young are attractive fishes of a 
light olive-green tint fading into yellow, witfy 
darker crossbar, usually five in number. The 
adult is often very dark, or greenish black, 
and may be six or more feet in length; 
a colossus that requires shark tackle though a 
big fellow can be worn out with tuna tackle. 
The small fishes, under twenty pounds, af- 
80 




Jew Fish 



THE FLORIDA GROUNDS 81 

ford fair sport with rod and reel. The tail of 
the jewfish is rounded outward; its mouth is 
enormous, the eyes near the upper part of the 
skull, the body big and clumsy. At Aransas 
Pass it is often fished for at night with rod and 
reel off the beach. The large jewfish is tough 
and impossible, only the young being of use for 
the camp or table. 

The grouper family is a large and important 
one in Florida and is on the ragged edge of 
the aristocrats of the real game fishes; but there 
are a number of cousins of the groupers that 
are extremely attractive fishes. The common 
red grouper is a deep-water fish by taste, but is 
found on the edge of reefs and so often taken 
in upper Florida when trolling. Down the reef 
it is taken with hand-lines in water from thirty 
to sixty or more feet. It is a large lusty fish, 
ranging from ten to seventy pounds. The one 
that, in my estimation, and I have caught them 
all, is really a game fish, is the so-called black 
grouper (Garrupa nigrita), also called jewfish 
(Mero de lo alto) and by other names. It has 
a square tail, enormous head, high dorsals, 
large eye, and presents a more shipshape ap- 
pearance than the jewfish. In a word, it looks 
like a hard fighting game fish, which it is. It 
is a chocolate-brown in color, adapting itself, 
more or less, to the reef (Key West portion), 



82 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

but well repays the angler. It lives in the clear 
water and has more the habit of the black sea 
bass which it resembles. A sixteen-ounce, six 
or seven-foot rod, No. 21 or No. 24 line, is 
sufficiently strong, and the bait may be fish or 
crayfish; if the latter, the whole tail, (shelled). 
The Nassau grouper or hamlet, the red 
grouper, speckled hind, red hind, rock hind 
or spotted grouper*, are all attractive fishes rang- 
ing the Florida region and the Bahamian banks 
many of them fine fishes when they can be taken 
with rod and reel. 



CHAPTER VI 

the gulf grounds 

Group ii 

the kingfish and its allies— spanish 
mackerel, etc. 

IN the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of 
Florida a typical sea muscallunge is found 
in the kingfish; a long lithe giant, Spanish 
mackerel-like fish, one of the important food 
fishes of the South and affording the finest kind 
of sport when it can be taken with rod and 
reel. 

Almost any time in approaching Key West 
the steamer will pass a fleet of boats fishing 
for kingfish. The fish, Scomberomorus ca- 
valla, ranges from ten to one hundred pounds, 
and from fifty pounds upward forms one of the 
fine game fishes of the ocean. It comes in great 
schools and is taken trolling. To enjoy it fully 
a rowboat is preferred, or a boat that can be 
stopped quickly. 

The tackle should be a tarpon or tuna rod of 
83 



84 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

nine or sixteen ounces, as the angler may wish; 
but the nine-ounce rod, No. 9 line, is heavy 
enough for rowboat fishing. In trolling from 
a big sailboat in the Nassau fashion, a big rod 
and No. 24 line is desirable. 

In appearance the kingfish looks the part; 
long, lithe, powerful, iron-gray in color; and 
when leaping at the bait, which, as a rule, it 
does and not after it is hooked, it is a splendid 
sight. The bait is mullet or any small silvery 
fish, or squid. I have taken them with a white 
rag. The first rush of a big kingfish or cero 
and its play in general is a revelation to the 
angler. The members of the Tarpon Club 
now take it off Aransas Pass, going out trolling 
beyond the jetties. 

There is another great game fish and cousin 
of the kingfish found here, but more rarely. 
This is the peto, or Acanthocybium solandri, 
found off the south of Key West and Tortugas 
in the Gulf Stream. It is a rare and splendid 
fish, occasionally caught when fishing for king- 
fish, running up to six feet in length and tipping 
the scales at one hundred or more pounds. The 
angler may go out for it, but the catch will be 
an accident, in my opinion, as in several years 
daily fishing on the Tortugas reef I saw very 
few. 



THE GULF GROUNDS 85 

Other large kingfish-like fishes are the esco 
laro of the Lepidopidae family. There are 
several genera and a number of species. It 
is taken off Key West and is common at Cuba 
where " escolaring " is a recognized sport. 
When it is known that escolars attain a weight 
of one hundred pounds it will be seen that here 
is a game fish to be conjured with. 

Very similar to the kingfish in general ap- 
pearance is the Spanish mackerel, S. maculatus, 
which may be termed a pigmy cero or kingfish; 
yet one of the finest of game fishes on very 
light tackle. It is an attractive mackerel-like 
fish, trim, debonair, beautifully marked with 
silver, blue above, with orange spots on its 
sides. It comes from the south in vast schools, 
and has been taken as far north as Cape Cod; 
but its real home is off Florida, on both sides 
of the Gulf of Mexico, where it is taken in 
great numbers. It rarely attains a weight of 
over twenty-five pounds, and the average fish 
is from four to six pounds. In 1909 I fished 
for Spanish mackerel in Aransas Pass, in water 
perfectly smooth. Scores of men and women 
were taking them with big bamboo rods and a 
short cotton line, small hook and shrimp bait. 
When a fish struck it was uncermoniously jerked 
into the emperian. I used an eight-ounce ten- 



86 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

foot split bamboo, a delicate silk line, and while 
I caught about one to ten of my neighbors I 
fancied I had more sport as the little four and 
six pounders made a splendid play on my light 
tackle, small hook and shrimp bait. 

This was still fishing, as I allowed my boat 
to drift; but in Florida as at Biscayne Bay and 
about Miami the fish are usually taken trolling. 
Anglers bring in many at Long Key Camp. In 
trolling a jig or squid is used. 

There is a Spanish mackerel, S. sierra, on the 
Pacific Coast, which I have taken at Santa Cata- 
lina though not in great numbers. Also the 
Monterey Spanish mackerel, S. concolor, taken 
trolling in the bay of Monterey, also in the 
San Clemente channel and off to the south 
of Santa Catalina, in September and October. 
The common mackerel when it can be taken, if 
captured with an eight-ounce trout rod or a 
stiff black bass rod, is a great game fish and 
when excited or biting it will take any kind of 
bait, a red rag or a silver spoon serving as well 
as bait. No trout of three pounds will make 
the sustained fight of a mackerel of the same 
weight, its rapid movements, its erratic play, 
long dashes about the boat on the resilient rod 
being a revelation to the angler who has the 
good fortune to try them on a fly rod. 




Leaping Tuna 



CHAPTER VII 

the pacific coast grounds 

Group 12 

the leaping tuna 

LEAVING the Gulf of Mexico region the 
sea angler may reach Southern Cali- 
fornia in two and one-half days, crossing 
Texas, an empire in itself, New Mexico and 
Arizona on the Sunset route from San Antonio 
to Los Angeles. Here is the Southern Cali- 
fornia sea angling ground including the islands 
of Santa Catalina, San Clemente, the Corona- 
dos, the Santa Barbara channel islands; all in 
all, the most remarkable sea angling region in 
the world. By this I do not mean that the 
angler can go out here and every day make a 
killing of leaping tuna. In this respect it is like 
other localities, fisherman's luck governs it ; but 
here is a wonderful assortment of game fishes 

87 



88 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

of large size, and best of all, a summer season, 
as a rule, devoid of squalls or storms of any- 
kind from May to November, a fishing-ground 
that is semitropical, yet always cool and delight- 
ful. Most important, the island of Santa Cata- 
lina is so situated that it forms a vast lee or 
smooth water twenty or more miles out in the 
ocean. This is why it is so difficult to make 
tuna fishing a popular sport off New Jersey, 
Madeira, Block Island or Nova Scotia. The 
tuna is there and can be caught, but it is an 
oceanic fish, and to take it with any degree of 
comfort and safety there must be smooth water. 

This is the secret of tuna fishing at Santa 
Catalina. Here, out at sea, in deep water, is 
water as smooth as a lake. As these lines are 
written, I have just watched and timed a friend 
playing a tuna for three hours and a half, in 
water twenty miles at sea, yet perfectly smooth. 

Santa Catalina is an island sixty miles around, 
twenty-two long and from a quarter of a mile to 
eight miles wide. It is a big mountain range ris- 
ing out of the ocean, with a marvelously cool 
summer climate and a winter that is the time 
of flowers, a cooler summer. On Avalon Bay 
is the town of Avalon, a town given over to 
angling, with all the appearance of a fashion- 
able resort, hotels, cottages, etc., with three or 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 89 

four sea-going steamers per day in the season 
and one in winter, and from six to eight thou- 
sand inhabitants. 

The interesting features of this town to the 
visiting angler are the boatmen's pier and the 
Tuna Club. The former is a long pier reach- 
ing out into the water, lined on both sides with 
the stands of boatmen, each designated by name, 
and with a seat, a tackle box and photographs 
of their world-wide patrons with their catches. 
In the bay are scores of launches, built here 
to meet the exact situation, and the result is that 
we find sea angling reduced to the last word 
of comfort. The Santa Catalina angler does 
not put on his old clothes and make himself 
entirely miserable ; he can go out in white flan- 
nel if he desires, and come back immaculate; 
all of which is understood by a glance at the 
launches and the methods of angling. Most 
of the boats are eighteen or twenty-foot gaso- 
line launches, wide beam and high rail, so they 
are very steady. The eight- or ten-horse power 
engine is placed amidships, and the engineer, 
boatman and gaffer sits on the starboard side 
at the wheel and can put his right hand on the 
wheel, the left on the clutch, and stop the en- 
gine at once when the angler has a strike. The 
latter sits in the stern, and facing it, in which 



90 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

are two comfortable chairs. One angler fishes 
to the right, one to the left. 

The boats are equipped with the finest and 
most expensive tackle — six-ounce rods and six- 
thread lines, nine-ounce rods and nine-thread 
lines for fish up to sixty pounds, and sixteen- 
ounce rods and number twenty-one lines for 
tuna and swordfish. They also have kites for 
imitating the flight of the nyingfish, sleds for 
deflecting the bait one or two hundred feet away 
from the boat, gaffs, harpoons; in fact a com- 
plete equipment which is provided for $10 per 
day for one, two or three persons though only 
two can fish at a time. Half a day's angling is 
generally all that is desired, or from 7 A. M. 
to 12 M. This makes the expense $5 or $6 
for two anglers or $3 a piece for boat, gaffer, 
bait, tackle, etc. 

The boatman provides everything, the finest 
tackle, the only condition being that if the ang- 
ler uses the expensive rods and lines of the boat- 
man he must replace them if broken or lost. 

In imagination we may assume that a boat- 
man has been secured and we are going out 
for the elusive tuna. The boatman has ob- 
tained a number of flying fishes, about eight- 
een inches long. The launch rounds up at the 
private dock of the Tuna Club and we step 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 91 

aboard. The rod is sixteen ounces in weight, 
seven or seven and a half feet in length. The 
line is No. 24, with a seven-foot piano-wire 
leader and a No. 10 O'Shaughnessy hook. 
Reaching the outer water the line is paid out 
one hundred feet or so, the rod resting on the 
knee. The boat moves along slowly or fast, 
as the boatman may think necessary; but the 
main impression is of comfort, cleanliness, 
safety, and enjoyment in the fine views of the 
mountainous island, the calm, still deep-blue 
water; and here we may leave the anglers to 
glance at the tuna. 

The tuna, tunny, horse mackerel, it is all 
one, is a fish of world-wide distribution, espe- 
cially common in the Mediterranean Sea and 
in Southern Californian waters. It is a great 
mackerel-like fish, attaining a weight of one 
thousand or more pounds and a length of 
eleven feet. For some reason the average fish 
in the Mediterranean Sea, where are famous 
fisheries over a century old, is 175 pounds. 
On the Massachusetts coast, north of Cape 
Cod and to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, 
fishes run up to 800 or 1400 pounds. Ten 
miles off the New Jersey coast, in rough water 
or water liable to be rough, and off Block 
Island, the average is 60 or 70 pounds, and 



92 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

at Santa Catalina the average tuna (Thunnus 
thynnus) is 150 pounds. 

This peculiarity and the positive assurance 
of smooth water has made Santa Catalina 
Island famous for its tuna angling; as a 150- 
pound fish is about the limit of angling enjoy- 
ment with rod and reel. When the fish runs 
up to 250 or 300 pounds it becomes labor and 
entails dangerous exertion. I took my first 
large tuna at this island in 1889, the fish that 
caused the founding of the Tuna Club. The 
fish towed me and a heavy boat about twelve 
miles in three hours, and I fought it without 
resting, using only a thumb pad of leather as 
a brake. 

The tunas spawn along this island and for- 
merly came in every July, and remained two 
months, affording great sport; but the Italian 
and Greek market fishermen, with the Japa- 
nese, by persistently netting this shore-line and 
spawning-ground, succeeded in practically driv- 
ing these fishes away and ruining one of the 
greatest sporting assets America ever had. 

It is interesting to note how Dr. Henry Van 
Dyke regarded this. He wrote the following 
after a day's fishing with the author: 

"The efforts of the Tuna Club to secure 
protection for the great game fishes of the 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 9S 

Pacific coast, are worthy of the support of every 
patriotic Californian. Let the process of grab- 
bing these fishes with nets on their spawning 
beds among the islands be continued for a few 
years longer, and one of the big assets of the 
state will be absolutely destroyed. And for 
what? To increase the profits of a few private 
corporations dealing in fish. 

When these fishes have been exterminated, 
they can never be replaced. The occupation 
of the poor fishermen will be gone, a valuable 
source of food supply will be cut off, one of 
the attractions which draws visitors from all 
parts of the world to California will be lost 
forever. 

No state is rich enough to allow such a waste 
of the property of all the people for the tem- 
porary advantage of a few. 

The legislature will render a real public ser- 
vice by forbidding the capture of the great 
game fishes at such seasons and in such places 
and ways as seem to threaten the species with 
extinction. All honest men, whether they are 
anglers or not, would approve and commend 
this action of California in defending one of 
her magnificient natural resources." 

The author and the Tuna Club fought for 
years for some legal protection to this coast, 



94 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

that Dr. Jordan has pronounced a spawning- 
bed, with no result. The politicians were 
afraid of the market fishermen's vote, but in 
19 13 an unusually intelligent lot of men were 
elected to the legislature. I made a report to 
the great Fish and Game Convention of the 
State of California on the conditions at Santa 
Catalina and San Clemente, and the threatened 
extinction of the great game and market fishes. 

Mr. E. L. Hedderly, editor of Western 
Field, drew a bill setting aside the spawning- 
beds three miles offshore as a fish refuge and 
prohibiting all market netting. It was no less 
than a miracle, looking back at the twenty 
years of endeavor; but the legislature passed 
the bill and Governor Johnson promptly 
signed it. This righteous bill went into effect 
August 12, 1 9 13, and for the first time in 
fifteen years the north coast of Santa Catalina 
for thirty-three miles was not netted day and 
night with long gill-nets running out into the 
ocean at intervals of every quarter of a mile, 
more or less. 

On about the 15th of August a large school 
of tunas came up from the south, and not run- 
ning into the miles of deadly nets, they re- 
mained near shore. On September 16th there 
was the first good tuna fishing at Santa Cata- 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 95 

lina Island in fifteen years, and it is believed 
that there will be a great increase in all the 
game fishes. A more notable illustration of 
reckless destruction of a great fishery and its 
saving at the eleventh hour was never known. 

The leaping tuna in normal years comes in 
June or July and remains until September 15 
or October 1. The vast schools lie off the 
island in deep water, but near the surface, and 
periodically raid the flying fishes, driving them 
into the bays and out onto the sands. At 
such times scores of schools can be seen on the 
surface and approached, and the bait cast at 
them with success. But the usual angling 
method is to troll with one hundred or one 
hundred and fifty feet of line astern, with a 
21- or 24-line, a piano-wire leader, eight or 
nine feet long, broken by several swivels, and 
a No. 10, or No. 12 hook, baited with a pound 
and a quarter flying fish. 

We will assume that one of our anglers has 
a strike. Two big tunas have come up astern 
with a rush. One takes the bait and is off, 
the click singing. The angler holds his tip 
up, endeavoring to apply brake or drag, the 
boatman stopping the launch and throwing her 
back. Between the knees of the angler, fast- 
ened to the seat, is a leather butt cap into 



96 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

which he has fitted the butt, and with this as 
a fulcrum he is ready to play the game. 

The reel deserves attention, as it is large 
enough to hold six or eight hundred feet of a 
No. 21 line, wet; as perfect as a clock, and 
costing from $50 to $100 if it is a real tuna 
reel by the best maker. The first few mo- 
ments the fine reel does the work with its 
brakes and sings; but if the fish is over one 
hundred and fifty pounds the angler should 
stop it before it takes five hundred feet of 
line; when this happens he begins to reel, and 
from then on it depends on the angler. The 
landing has been done in twenty minutes and 
in fourteen hours, but the man who lands a 
tuna of over one hundred pounds in less than 
forty minutes has performed heroic work. 

There is a great difference in fishes, but the 
fish of one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
pounds, in its best condition, is a match for 
the best man with rod and reel. When the 
fish is brought to the surface the boatman 
brings out his gaff with an eight-foot handle, 
fastened to a rope, gaffs the fish under the 
head and holds it, and the deed is done. Vol- 
umes could be filled with the exciting adven- 
tures of the seventy or more anglers who have 
taken a one-hundred-pound leaping tuna, thus 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 97 

qualifying for membership in the Tuna Club. 

The tuna spawns in the waters near shore; 
the young go into deeper water and do not 
return until they are of adult growth. This 
tuna does not leave the water after it is 
hooked, except on very rare occasions. It is 
called leaping tuna on account of its wonder- 
ful leaps after flying fish when feeding. 

The first very large tuna was taken by the 
writer in 1889 with a sixteen-ounce rod and 
twenty-one-thread line. It weighed 183 
pounds. This record was beaten the follow- 
ing year by the late Col. C. P. Morehous with 
a 251-pounder, which has stood ever since, 
though Mr. Ross of Montreal took off Can- 
ada a 600-pounder, but with a larger line and 
not under the rules which hold in the Tuna 
Club. The angler who defeats the Tuna Club 
record will take many prizes. It is estimated 
that $150,000 has been expended by anglers 
in a vain attempt to break it. 

Various efforts have been made by the Tuna 
Club members to find satisfactory tuna fishing 
elsewhere. Mr. Aflalo investigated the Ma- 
deira Islands, but it was too rough. Mr. 
Earlscliffe attempted it in the Mediterranean, 
but Santa Catalina is the only place where the 
natural conditions are such as to make this 



98 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

sport a real pleasure. Even at San Clemente 
Island, where the tunas go, and San Nicolas, 
the sea is too rough and there is no lee. Play- 
ing a heavy fish in a seaway, where the waves 
are the greatest danger to the line and where 
one is liable to be caught in a squall ten miles 
out to sea, may be exciting, but it is not 
adapted to the long play often required in the 
case of a 150- or 200-pound tuna. Some of 
the tuna records of the Tuna Club, made in 
the tournaments, are as follows : 

RECORDS 

Angler Date Weight 

Chas. F. Holder 1898 183 pounds 

C. P. Morehous, Pasadena 1899 251 " 

A. W. Barrett, Los Angeles 1900 164 " 

Mrs. E. N. Dickinson, New York.. 1902 216 " 

E. E. Ford, Alhambra 1902 174 " 

John E. Stearns, Los Angeles 1902 197 " 

A. W. Barrett, Los Angeles 1904 131 " 

Phil. S. O'Mara, Salt Lake 1969 153 

L. G. Murphy, Indiana 1910 175/4 " 

C. B. Stocton, Los Angeles 191 1 170 " 

No tunas under one hundred pounds are 
counted, and when it is announced that no tunas 
have been taken, it means that no fish over one 
hundred pounds in weight has been taken with 
rod and reel. 

Brief mention of the Tuna Club may not be 
out of place at this juncture. The club was 
founded by the author in 1889, to form a gen- 
tlemen's club that should take an interest in 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 99 

the conservation of game fishes, fresh and salt, 
in all California. The club has a commodious 
clubhouse, which it owns, on Avalon Bay. It 
gives two tournaments yearly; has several thou- 
sand dollars' worth of beautiful prizes, and per- 
forms a valuable work in aiding in saving the 
fisheries and elevating the sport standards all- 
over the country. It has three hundred or 
more members and enrolls on its list some of 
the most distinguished anglers and sportsmen in 
the world. Among them are Lord Desbor- 
ough, W. D. Coggeshall, Senator George F. Ed- 
munds, Charles Hallock, Admiral Peary, 
Winston Churchill, Dan C. Beard, Dr. 
George E. Hale, David Starr Jordan, Gif- 
ford Pinchot, Prince d'Arenberg, Gen. John 
W. Foster, J. K. L. Ross, Dr. Henry Van 
Dyke, Colonel Roosevelt, Stewart Edward 
White, Caspar Whitney, and many more 
famed as anglers or for services in the interests 
of the conservation of the fisheries. 

The club's spring tournament is a notable 
event in the field of sea angling, and every 
game fish of the region— white sea bass, tuna, 
black sea bass, yellowtail, swordfish, etc.— has 
a prize or many prizes in the different classes, 
all with the object of inducing the angler to 
fish with the lightest tackle and give the game 



100 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

fair play. The result? Fifteen years ago 
boats would go out with six or eight big hand- 
lines and come in with half a ton of splendid 
fish, running up to thirty pounds, which were 
dumped into the bay. To-day each of the pos- 
sible one hundred angling launches of Avalon 
is equipped with the finest rods, reels, and 
lines. Such a thing as a hand-line is unknown. 
All of the thousands of anglers fish with dainty 
rods and lines, and a splendid standard of 
sport prevails. The Tuna Club cups and 
trophies are on exhibition, and its living room 
or hall has one of the most interesting exhibits 
of oceanic fishes to be found in the world, all 
the records of the members. 



Group 13 
the yellow-fin tuna 

THE second tuna in point of sporting 
value as a game fish at Santa Catalina 
and San Clemente, California, is the 
yellow-fin tuna, Thunnus maculata. Hang up 
the three species side by side and this fish will 
appear to be a cross between the leaping tuna 
and the long-fin tuna; but it is a fish of pro- 
nounced individuality. It associates with the 
long-fin tuna, but I have never seen it in schools 
of the leaping tuna. It is a beautiful fish, with 
green back, silver belly, and lemon-yellow fin- 
lets; the eye large and lustrous; a beautiful 
fish in the water, dignified, and graceful, with 
all the cleverness of a trout. 

For years the yellow-fin tuna has been known 
in Japan and Honolulu, but it was not recog- 
nized as a Santa Catalina fish until 1890, when 
vast schools appeared, and it at once took its 
place as a game fish of the first quality. Driven 
away by the netters, described in a previous 
101 



102 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

chapter, it deserted the island for years, but 
at the present writing is back again and filling 
the waters of the Santa Catalina lee and chan- 
nel with life. 

So thick were these fish at San Clemente in 
19 13 that they almost ruined the sport with 
the swordfish. Mr. Hooper of the Tuna Club, 
Vice-President of the Winchester Arms Com- 
pany, told me that he could not get his sword- 
fish bait overboard without hooking a tuna. 
In a trip within a few days tunas were hooked 
by a companion off Avalon Bay, and I saw 
men in skiffs playing them. 

The yellow-fin tuna ranges up to four feet 
in length and one hundred pounds in weight, 
but the average fish is fifty pounds and the rod 
record sixty pounds. The school of 19 13 aver- 
aged forty pounds. This fish is taken on a 
nine-ounce rod and a No. 9 line with a break- 
ing strength of eighteen pounds; that is, the 
line will lift a dead weight of eighteen pounds. 
They have also been taken on the 3-6. tackle. 
The bait is a large sardine or smelt. 

Not long ago when we were moving along 
at a rate of four or five miles an hour, the 
strike came, and my companion hooked a tuna. 
It was eight o'clock, and he landed the fish at 
about eleven, or three hours later, during which 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 103 

time the fish towed the boat at least two miles. 
It repeatedly came to surface. This fish was 
foul hooked, and I £uote it to show the strength 
and staying power of the fish, so characteristic 
of the family. 

While this tuna will bite readily on sardines, 
I have spent a day endeavoring to lure one. 
We were drifting and when the boatman tossed 
over a handful of bait they would rush at it, 
but carefully avoid the baited hook I dropped. 
This tuna feeds on small fishes, occasionally 
flying fish, and in September goes down deep 
and gorges itself on squid, schools of which 
are found here in deep water. It spawns near 
shore along Santa Catalina in August and Sep- 
tember and disappears in October, probably 
going to some deep outer bank "where the 
siren sings," or it may go down the Mexican 
coast to warmer waters. Some of the records 
of the Tuna Club are: 

Angler Date Weight 

Arthur J. Eddy, Chicago 1906 60 pounds 

E. J. Polkinhorn, Pasadena 1907 50^ " 

F. T. Newport, Arcadia, Cal 191 1 54 u 



Group 14 
the long-fin tuna 

THIS fish, Thunnus alalonga, has a wide 
range over the world, there being but 
one species and one genera. It is the 
smallest of all tunas, the average weight being 
but twenty-five pounds. I have been told by 
reliable fishermen that they had seen one- 
hundred-pounders. The fish is shorter, 
plumper than the others; its back a rich 
blue, its belly silver; the eyes large and hyp- 
notic. It has the little finlets, numbering eight, 
which in the leaping tuna number nine, and in 
the yellow-fin tuna nine, but they are blue or 
dark instead of lemon-yellow. 

It is essentially a tuna with the exception 
of the side fins, which are of extraordinary 
size, reaching from the first spine of the dorsal 
to the anal fin, or almost half the length of 
the body, and the most noticeable feature. If 
we trim off these fins we have a very good imi- 
tation of a leaping tuna or yellow-fin; in a 
word, the resemblance is strong. In its habits 
104 




Long Fin Tuna 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 105 

this tuna differs greatly from the others. It is 
almost non-migratory here and normally can 
be found in great numbers at any time from 
a mile to two miles off Avalon Bay, rarely 
if ever going any nearer and ranging the blue 
waters to a depth of several hundred feet, but 
normally lying near the surface. 

It is the fish the anglers all rely upon at 
Santa Catalina when everything else is out of 
season; it can almost always be caught if the 
season is not particularly stormy; then it dis- 
appears for a month or so. It feeds on small 
fishes and will bite so readily that it is often 
a nuisance. But it makes a violent and vi- 
cious play, plunging down into the deeps and 
often wearing out the lusty angler. It should 
be taken with a nine-ounce rod, nine-thread 
line, No. 10 or No. 12 hook, and sardine or 
smelt bait. The piano-wire leader here need 
not be over a foot or six inches long. A small 
sinker is generally attached to take the line 
down below the surface a foot or so; indeed, 
such a sinker is used for all these fishes, so 
that bait will not lie above the surface when 
trolling. 

This tuna spawns along the kelp beds of Santa 
Catalina, now a fish refuge by the act of legis- 
lature secured by the Tuna Club in 19 13. The 



106 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

eggs are deposited in August and September, 
but the very young are rarely seen here, the 
smallest fish being a five- or six-pounder, show- 
ing that they keep in deep water, out of sight. 

All these tunas are of importance. In the 
Mediterranean the tunny fighters are of great 
value and the young tuna of fifty pounds, as 
served at the banquets of the Tuna Club, is 
meaty and rich. The yellow-fin is also a food 
fish, and the long-fin tuna is the one that is 
canned as " Blue Sea Tuna " and now consti- 
tutes the supply of a great business. While 
this tuna should be taken with a nine-ounce rod, 
it can be caught with 3-6 tackle. In using this, 
the angler should wear a belt with a rod socket 
and he can stand and play the game. In all 
this fishing there is what is termed " pumping." 
In water a mile deep, fish when hooked go 
down, instead of leaping as they do in the 
shallows, and when a long-fin tuna is stopped 
at the three-hundred-foot mark he must be 
lifted up, a proceeding to which he objects 
strenuously. 

If you could see him now! He is pointed 
downward, head down, tail up, boring down. 
To offset or overcome this — sulking, it is termed 
in salmon angling — the angler holds his rod 
steady, reels the tip down to the surface, checks 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 107 

the line with one of his left-hand fingers (on 
the rod), and lifts the fish steadily until the 
rod is vertical or at an angle of sixty degrees; 
then the rod is dropped to the water suddenly, 
the angler reeling rapidly, and before the fish 
realizes it he has gained several feet. This 
is repeated, and is known as " pumping," as 
the angler makes an up-and-down movement. 
This is at first difficult, but it soon becomes 
automatic ; the lift with the left hand, the sud- 
den change of the right from the lower grip 
to the reel handle, etc., and when once under- 
stood is easily done and the fish brought to 
the surface. But if the latter is foul-hooked 
it may be a matter of hours. The long-fin tuna 
cups and trophies of the Tuna Club are many 
— cups, medals, medallions, etc. The club 
records with rod and reel are interesting and 
are as follows: 



Angler Date Weight 

Chas. W. Miller, Denver... 1901 30 pounds 

Ernest Fallon, Los Angeles 1902 35 " 

John Van Liew, " " 1903 38 " 

Stewart Ingraham " 19041 46 " 

T. W. Mclntyre, Illinois 1908 (winter)" 6$ r A " 

W. N. McMillan, Nairobi, 

Africa 1910 50 " 

Frank Kelly, Indiana . .. 1911-12 (winter) 66^4 " 

Frank B. Hoyt, Oakland... 1913 (winter) 50 

Most of these tunas were taken on nine- 



108 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

ounce rods and No. 9 lines, with a breaking 
strength of eighteen pounds. Thus, if the an- 
gler in his excitement in playing a fifty-pounder 
puts on a greater strain than eighteen pounds, 
the line snaps. 



Group 15 
the little tunnies 

THE Eonitos of California so closely re- 
semble the big tunas that it is evident 
they are close kinsmen. One, the oce- 
anic bonito, is one of the fine game fishes in 
early spring in the Santa Catalina channel — 
the wide deep channel that lies between Santa 
Catalina Island and the mainland. Its specific 
name is Gymnosarda pelamis. It has a pro- 
nounced turn or dip in the lateral line below 
the second dorsal fin and four lengthwise 
stripes on its side below the lateral line, this 
distinguishing it from the Atlantic species. 

It attains a length of two feet. I have taken 
specimens up to twenty pounds, and consider 
it one of the hard fighting fishes of the region. 
It roams the temperate seas in schools loosely 
connected, and spawns in the sheltered lee of 
Santa Catalina and San Clemente in June and 
July. So erratic is the appearance of this fish 
that its catch is very uncertain; hence anglers 
cannot depend or rely upon it. It is a fish to 
109 



110 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

be taken on a six-ounce rod and given a chance 
for its life on a No. 6 line. The lure is a 
sardine or smelt or Wilson spoon, with mod- 
erate speed. 

Associated nearly always with the long-fin 
tuna on the surface of the deep Santa Catalina 
channel is the California bonito, or skipjack; a 
plump, radiant little fish of the tunny tribe, 
known to science as Sarda chilensis. It ranges 
up and down the coast from Patagonia to San 
Francisco, and is particularly common at Santa 
Catalina. The best way to take it is to go out 
a mile or two in the lee of the island where 
the water is smooth, and have the boatman 
toss over chum or ground fish until the bonitos 
come to the surface. They are so tame that 
they come about the boat and almost take the 
bait from the hand. Now the angler can bait 
his hook with a sardine, cast at the bonito he 
wishes, and take him. The vigor of the little 
fish is extraordinary. I once watched a young 
lady play one over an hour before she could 
land it. This bonito turned out to be a record 
fish, a twenty-pounder. It played, as do most 
of the bonitos, entirely on the surface, making 
great circles and rushes. 

No fish is more beautiful than this marine 
humming-bird as it comes in. Its back is a 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 111 

deep blue; its belly silver, and over all is an 
investment of old rose-pink, and it scintillates 
in the sun like a prism. It has a very different 
movement from other fishes. The body is 
very plump and thick-set, and in swimming the 
tail apparently is wriggled violently, the side 
fins used very little. In the long-fin tuna the 
extraordinary long pectoral or side fins, more 
than half the length of the fish, are not used, 
in all probability, to swim with, but are bal- 
ancers; I have seen them held two or three 
inches from the body while the fish was driv'- 
ing itself along by its tail. 

The bonito is a common article of food, and 
a game fish to be conjured with on light tackle. 
The average catch does not weigh over six or 
seven pounds. The Tuna Club record for the 
bonito is twenty pounds. 



Group 16 
the black sea bass 

NO one can angle long in Southern Cali- 
fornian waters without being startled 
when reeling in a line by the apparition 
of an enormous black or gray fish dashing to 
the surface after the bait, causing the water 
to swirl and foam as, perchance, it misses it 
and goes back to the bottom. 

This might be a shark, but it is the black 
sea bass, Stereolepis gigas, a gigantic member 
of the bass family and not to be confused with 
the Florida jewfish, being a totally different 
fish. The black sea bass appears to be born 
big, at least I have never seen one under one 
hundred pounds, but I have heard of a fifty- 
pounder and know a man who said he had 
seen one of two pounds. But as for very little 
black sea bass no one, apparently, has ever 
seen one, although the fish spawns in the kelp 
beds of the islands in August and September. 
They come in from the outer deeps in May 
and June, and in July, August, and September 

112 




Black Sea Bass 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 113 

are in full possession of the kelp beds, aquatic 
forests, and can almost always be taken back 
of Avalon in a great kelp forest in water thirty 
or fifty feet deep. 

I have taken an eighty-pounder with a nine- 
ounce rod, but the big ones (and in the Gulf 
of California they attain a weight of one thou- 
sand pounds — reported) require tuna tackle. 
The fish displays remarkable strength, espe- 
cially when hard fought. If handled gently 
they can be manipulated easier. I have had 
many a bout with the black sea bass and more 
than once was outgeneraled. 

The method of taking the fish is to go to 
the locality and use half a barracuda or six 
pounds of long-fin tuna for bait. This is low- 
ered to within five feet of the bottom. The 
boat is buoyed to the anchor so that it can be 
cast off. Sooner or later the strike comes. 
The tuna comes at its lure like a bolt of light- 
ning, but this giant nibbles at the bait, I have 
seen him do it. He hovers over it, passes it, 
turns about, all ready to become alarmed and 
rush away. I have watched him do all this 
sometimes standing on his head in the wonder- 
ful kelpian forest, an amazing and startling 
spectacle. 

So, bearing this habit in mind, you are not 



114 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

disturbed when the click of your reel begins to 
sound in the most deliberate fashion. You 
wait five or ten minutes, or until the line is 
running out with some regularity; then you 
give ten or twenty feet of line, according to 
the temperament of your boatman; then when 
it comes taut you strike and — the fight is on. 

The game is a two-hundred-pounder, any- 
way, and possibly a three- or four-hundred- 
pound fish. The Tuna Club record is 436, 
pounds, by Mr. L. G. Murphy of Converse, 
Ind., in the season of 1905. In 1912 Mr. 
S. W. Guthrie of Los Angeles took a 427- 
pounder. The first rush is irresistible and two 
or three hundred feet of line may be taken 
before you can stop the fish; then it swims 
steadily on, towing a launch or rowboat, and 
making for the ocean forest, which, if it enters, 
the game is up. 

So you fight, pull, and reel with judgment, 
never putting over forty-two pounds pressure 
on your line. In half an hour, or an hour, if 
you have luck, the leviathan is on the surface, 
a big, splendid replica of a fresh-water black 
bass, or as near that as anything. Your man 
gaffs him and with a block and tackle he is 
lifted on deck or fastened and towed in. 

The black sea bass has all the habits of a 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 115 

bass and is occasionally taken trolling, but the 
line should be provided with a sinker so that it 
will reach to within ten feet of the bottom. In 
trolling a five-pound whitefish or a flying fish is 
a good lure, and to see three hundred pounds 
of fish running up at your bait as you pull it 
rapidly in, is a revelation. The black sea bass 
appears in schools at times; is full of spawn 
in August and September, and disappears prao* 
tically from its summer resorts in November, 
though certain fishes can be taken in certain 
localities at almost any time. 

Some of the Tuna Club rod records are as 
follows : 

Angler Date Weight 

S. W. Guthrie, Los Angeles 1912 427 pounds 

J. S. Dempsey, Kentucky 191 1 430 " 

Jesse Roberts, Philadelphia 1910 385 " 

R. S. Baird, San Francisco 1909 394 " 

C. J. Tripp, kos Angeles 1907 427 " 



Group 17 
the white sea bass 

IN traveling around the world the angler 
will find old friends but slightly changed 
in different lands. Thus, the South Afri- 
cander has his kabeljou, a great fish which is 
the weakfish in New York. Crossing the con- 
tinent he finds a species in the Gulf of Califor- 
nia weighing one hundred pounds. At Santa 
Catalina he catches a fish called the white sea 
bass, Cynoscion nobilis, a near cousin. The 
Californian fish averages thirty pounds and 
runs up to eighty; is a fine game fish, arriving 
in April and May at Santa Catalina in vast 
schools and providing sport of the best quality. 
It spawns along the island kelp beds in July, and 
late in the summer and fall is taken in numbers 
farther north, as in Monterey Bay. 

The white sea bass is a long, grayish, sil- 
very fish, looking mich like a salmon, five or 
six feet in length, and when a school dashes 
into Avalon Bay after sardines it is a spectacle 
to be remembered. When not feeding, the 
no 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 117 

bass lies in broken schools in the great kelp 
beds, poising like birds among the branches. 

The tackle used is a nine-ounce rod, nine- 
thread line, short leader of piano-wire, and 
No. 12 hook. Live bait, mackerel or sardine, 
is the most effective. The boat is allowed to 
drift, but the greater number of fish are taken 
trolling with a flying fish or a Wilson spoon. 
I have taken five fifty-pounders in one day in 
Avalon Bay with live bait. Their play on the 
surface adds to the conclusion that they have 
few superiors as a great game fish. 

The rod record of the Tuna Club is a sixty- 
pounder, taken by Mr. C. H. Harding of 
Philadelphia. In playing this fish the angler 
should wear the leather belt with a butt socket 
and stand and play the fish comfortably. 

The so-called sea-trout of Southern Califor- 
nian waters is but another species, and another 
is found further north, while the giant of 
Mexico, which I have taken at Guaymas and 
at Tobari, one hundred miles south, is C. mac- 
donaldi, all having the same general habit and 
all are game fishes in the best sense. The 
smaller ones are well adapted to the trout rod 
of eight ounces. 

At Santa Catalina the white sea bass is an 
early spring fish, though it sometimes remains 



118 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

into September, and can be found along the 
islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente in 
water from twenty to thirty feet in depth, or 
in harbors like San Luis Obispo, where there 
is no surf, also at Redondo. 




Yellow Tail 



Group 18 
the yellowtail 

THE amber-jack of the Pacific coast is the 
yellowtail, Seriola dorsalis. It is liter- 
ally the fish of the people, or to South- 
ern Californians what the bluefish is to the 
New Englanders. It has a wide range, from 
Mexico to Monterey Bay, but its normal home, 
where it is always to be found from April to 
December, is the shores of the Santa Catalina 
channel islands of California, especially San 
Clemente, famous for its thirty- and forty-pound 
yellowtails, that can be caught at times as fast 
as the line is dropped over. Again the yellow- 
tail will flaunt its charms of blue, old-gold, and 
silver in your face, five feet from the boat, yet 
scorn the bait that hides the hook, thus proving 
itself the cleverest of the game fishes of the 
sea. 

I think the judgment of all sea anglers is 
that the yellowtail, " pound for pound," as Dr. 
Henshall has it, is the hardest fighting of all 
the game fishes of the sea. The fish of twenty- 



120 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

seven or thirty pounds, or even seventeen or 
twenty pounds, never discovers that he is 
beaten, he never acknowledges it, and the tyro 
only conquers one on fair tackle after a long 
struggle. 

A volume could be written on the yellowtail 
and the tricks it plays on verdant anglers ; how 
it has pulled men and boys overboard; how it 
bites ravenously to-day and scorns the lure to- 
morrow. On the Pacific coast, if the winter is 
mild, with little rain, it will remain at the 
islands all the year, and I have caught it nearly 
every week in the year at Avalon. But its 
custom is to leave in December, going out to 
some deep offshore plateau, where it remains 
until March or April, when it begins to move 
inshore, doubtless following the vast schools 
of sardines, anchovies, or smelts. 

There are several definite " runs " at Santa 
Catalina or San Clemente recognized by the 
fishermen; one early in April, another in June, 
but they are uncertain. Some years the yellow- 
tails will come in vast numbers, so that in my 
experience it was impossible to lower a bait 
without hooking a twenty- or thirty-pound fish. 
The following year yellowtail angling would 
draw a blank. One year they are at San Cle- 
mente, and very few at Santa Catalina; the 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 121 

next year they are at Redondo, on the main- 
land, in numbers ; but, as a rule, they are found 
in great numbers at the islands off the city of 
Los Angeles. 

The fish attains a length of five feet and a 
weight of eighty pounds, but the average catch 
is a twenty-five pounder, and the rod record 
is sixty and one-half pounds, held by Mr. W. 
W. Simpson, a member of the Tuna Club, of 
Winkley, Whalley, England. This fish is in 
the British Museum, with a replica of the rod, 
reel, and line used by Mr. Simpson in taking 
it, at San Clemente, off Los Angeles County, 
California. 

The yellowtail is one of the most beautiful 
of all fishes ; a deep green above, with a yellow 
median line, tail and fins often a vivid lemon- 
yellow ; the belly pure silver ; the eye large and 
brilliant, the head large; the fish looking for 
all the world like a giant bluefish, but with a 
long, fine dorsal fin and powerful tail. It is 
very erratic in its movements; now in schools, 
now living a solitary life; in winter often com- 
ing up on hooks set in eight hundred feet of 
water; now basking in the sun, swimming 
slowly in schools on the surface or dashing like 
furies into bays, chasing the small fry out onto 
the beach. It is essentially a deep-water fish; 



122 SALTWATER GAME FISHING 

that is, it is not found on shores where there 
is a surf, but on the surface of the deep chan- 
nels and in summer it, doubtless, rarely goes 
below one hundred feet. 

The fish is more or less carnivorous, feeding 
on sardines, anchovies, flying fish, or squid. It 
is found to spawn in August and September, 
but very small fishes are never seen, and doubt- 
less take to deep waters or some secluded place. 
The tackle for big yellowtail is the nine-ounce 
rod and No. 9 line with No. 10 hook, a foot 
of piano-wire leader, and as bait a flying fish. 
If smaller fish are desired, the 3-6 tackle should 
be used with sardine bait, trolling slowly not 
far from shore along the kelp. It is well to 
toss over chum, and, to my mind, the ideal 
yellowtail angling is had by allowing the bait 
to drift, attracting the fish to it by tossing 
over bait, then casting with the 3-6 tackle and 
hooking them in plain sight. Such a locality is 
Ship Rock, Santa Catalina. In 19 12, with Dr. 
Gifford Pinchot, we took thirteen or fourteen 
big fellows in a forenoon, experimenting with 
various tackle, the fish biting the moment the 
sardine sank out of sight. 

The cups, medals, etc., for yellowtail at the 
Tuna Club are many, and in the tournaments 
it is the favorite catch, due to its pugnacity 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 123 

and hard fighting qualities. When yellowtails 
are scarce alongshore anglers hunt for them 
at sea beneath beds of floating kelp. Here 
they often strike the beautiful dolphin, that 
changes its colors as it comes in, yellow-green 
and gold, a marvelous sight. The fish plays 
so like the yellowtail that the angler does not 
know the difference until it is brought to gaff. 
In this way the rare rooster-fish, Papagalo 
nematistius, is sometimes taken, which I have 
hooked at Guaymas, where it is a common fish. 



Group 19 

SMALL GAME FISHES OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

A VOLUME could be written on the small 
game fishes alone of the Santa Catalina 
Channel islands. The whitefish, up to 
ten pounds, is a vigorous game always to be 
counted on from early spring to late fall, in 
rather deep water; sardine bait and nine-ounce 
rod. Nearer shore we find that sheepshead, a 
big-headed fish of ten or fifteen pounds, with 
black and red alternating stripes in the adult, 
the female all gray, white, or red. This fish 
makes a game play and is fond of abalone and 
crayfish bait, but will not scorn sardine. At San 
Clemente, in the shallows, they can be caught 
in great numbers. 

In the kelp beds are countless rock bass of 
several species that range up to four or five 
pounds. At San Nicolas Island I have taken 
ten-pound rock bass, of a dark-green hue, that 
made a valiant play. In schools about the 
rocks and in the kelp beds is the blue-eyed 
perch, a fish of from one to four pounds, with 
124 




Yellow Fin Tuna 




White Fish 




Mackerel 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 125 

a small mouth, gray tints, and beautiful blue 
eyes. It is rarely caught, as the angler uses 
too large a hook and does not bait for it with 
abalone, crab, or crayfish, which it loves. An- 
other little fish, blue, with stripes, is the black- 
smith, that makes a savage fight, while the 
striped perch of two pounds and the splendid 
sand-bass of eight or ten pounds are occasion- 
ally taken, to demonstrate to the angler that 
in the variety, as well as game qualities, of its 
fishes California stands well to the fore. 

Outside of the kelp we may see schools of 
the California mackerel, and myriads of bar- 
racudas from six to twelve pounds. In the 
little bays, like Silver Canon, on sandy bottom, 
lie fine California halibut, which will rise to 
the surface and take a sardine, and go rippling 
away, making a splendid play. Here, too, are 
several rays that are game; a leaping oil-shark, 
that is an understudy to the tarpon, while the 
big hammerhead and bonito-sharks afford sport 
for the strenuous. Singularly enough, anglers 
are rarely troubled with sharks here as in 
Florida. 

At Silver Canon, Santa Catalina, just out- 
side the surf, are found the roncador (Urn- 
brina), the yellow-fin (Seriphus politus), the 
surf-fish (Menticirrus undulatus) — all game 



126 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

fishes requiring crab, crayfish, or clam bait, as 
it is their custom to lie in the surf, or just 
beyond it, and hunt for the little sand-crabs 
washed out by the waves. The gulls prey on 
them from the shore side, while the roncadors 
lie in wait in the undertow. 

In the deeper waters the sea-trout, a small 
white sea bass, is found with large smelts and 
a variety of small fry too numerous to men- 
tion — all of which, and those mentioned in this 
chapter should be angled for with a light rod 
of six ounces and No. 6 line and hook adapted 
to the fish. Thus, rock bass will take a large 
No. 10 or No. 12 hook; but the blue-eyed perch 
requires a very small hook, a No. 8 or 12 fly- 
hook size, and the same is true of the black- 
smith and the Medialuna. 

In San Francisco Bay the torn cod is a game 
fish, and the striped bass is game to conjure 
with by trolling along the flats with a Wilson 
spoon or bait — crayfish, crab, or abalone. 
About the Santa Barbara channel islands prac- 
tically the same fishes are taken, but the islands 
stand end-on to the prevailing inshore wind; 
hence there is little or no smooth water to be 
counted on, though the mornings are often 
smooth; but the west wind and frequent fog 
comes rolling in, and the angler here should 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 127 

be sure of his boat and boatman and take no 
chances. All the channel islands are twenty or 
more miles at sea and the angler should always 
go in a boat with an experienced boatman, ex- 
cept at Santa Catalina, where the bays of Ava- 
lon and Cabrillo are always smooth and per- 
fectly safe. The San Clemente channel, be- 
tween that island and Santa Catalina, is rough 
in the afternoon, so boatmen making the pas- 
sage leave at four o'clock in the morning, mak- 
ing the trip on smooth seas, the wind not rising 
until ten o'clock or so. 



Group 20 
the shore fishes of the pacific 

THE region from Cape Mendocino to the 
Mexican line at Coronado on the Pa- 
cific coast abounds in towns where every 
facility is provided for the angler. Some of 
these are Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Re- 
dondo, Venice, Hermosa Beach, Seal Beach, 
Huntington Beach, Long Beach, San Pedro, 
Portugese Bend, Bay City, Alamitos, Laguna, 
Newport, Del Mar, Ocean Side, Coronado, Bay 
City, and others, all nearly all on long sandy 
beaches where the great sea fishes described 
do not come in, as they do not like surf or the 
sandy water. Only one of these beaches, Re- 
dondo, occasionally has the yellowtail and 
other fishing, from the pier or beach, and this 
is due to the fact that a deep channel cuts in at 
Redondo. If, then, you wish yellowtail, bonito, 
and the tunas at these towns, you must take the 
local market boats, or a launch, and go out due 
west of the shore into the channel for from one 
mile to five, where by trolling the fishes may be 
128 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 129 

had. Black sea bass may be found in the kelp 
beds and at the entrance to San Diego harbor. 
All these beach towns are devoted to other 
fishing, and nearly all have long piers which 
reach out over the surf and are patronized by 
anglers from far and near, who use long, stiff 
bamboo rods, clam and fish bait, and catch a 
variety of small fishes — mackerel, smelt, croak- 
ers, surf, sharks, rays, sculpins, halibut, and 
others. The long California beaches afford a 
field for the angler similar to those of the At- 
lantic angler en the Jersey coast. Here the 
members of the Los Angeles Rod and Reel 
Club display their skill and have reduced the 
sport of beach angling to a science. You may 
see their long rods thrust into the sand almost 
anywhere from Santa Barbara to La Jolla or 
the Mexican line. The game fish is the surf, 
or California whiting, Menticirrhus undulatus, 
a fine game fish at four or five pounds. Here 
also is the yellow-fin Seriphus politus, the spot-fin 
croaker, Roncador stearnsi. There is also a 
little roncador or croaker, Genyonemis lineatus. 
The yellow-fin, Seriphus politus, is one of the 
most beautiful of all the surf-fishes; tinted gold, 
silver, and yellow, and adapting itself in a mar- 
velous fashion to the color of the bottom. This 
fish is also to be had all alongshore and in num- 



130 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

bers at Silver Canon, Santa Catalina, where it 
lies in deeper water off the beach where at 
times a heavy surf rolls in. The tyro might 
fish here or anywhere alongshore for these 
fishes and not suspect their presence, simply by 
not using the right kind of bait. Yellowtail, 
halibut, whitefish, and others are taken here 
with sardine bait, but surf-fish never, or hardly 
ever. Clam, crayfish, or abalone bait is used 
for them, principally the first mentioned, when 
a good catch will be made — and good sport be 
enjoyed. When angling for surf-fish with a 
six-ounce rod, a halibut is often a possibility, 
and specimens weighing sixty pounds have 
been taken. 

Perhaps the most interesting fish caught on 
the mainland shores is the ladyfish, Albula 
vulpes; I have seen specimens two feet in 
length at Santa Monica. Possibly the best lo- 
cality for them is in Anaheim Bay, Alamitos 
Bay, and at Newport Bay, where they find the 
smooth, shallow waters suited to their taste 
and habit. When hooked, the ladyfish acts in 
a very unladylike manner, leaping in a frenzy 
and dancing around, calling to mind the gyra- 
tions of a maddened tarpon. 

The golden croaker, Umbrina roncador; the 
yellow-fin, Seriphus politus; the spot-fin 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 131 

croaker, Roncador stearnsi; the California 
surf whiting, Menticirrhus undulatus, form a 
group of most interesting fishes, and in South- 
ern California have literally thousands of dev- 
otees. Special trains are run on the railroads 
to the beaches to accommodate the anglers, and 
the fine piers and beaches form the field for 
the " try-outs " in the great summer and win- 
ter tournaments of the Los Angeles Rod and 
Reel Club, of which Mr. Charles V. Barton 
of Los Angeles is secretary and Mr. Max Loew- 
enthal president. The club offers handsome 
prizes for the various events. 

This great fishing ground of Southern Cali- 
fornia is so situated that strange fishes come 
across from the west and up from the south, 
giving it a remarkable fish fauna; hence the 
angler is liable at any time to take strange 
fishes, as the dolphin, the bottle-nose dolphin 
(a whale), taken by Col. John E. Stearns; the 
fine game fish, pomfret, Bramaraii; the so- 
called pompano, Peritus simillium, the opha, 
and Luvarus jack. All these fishes can be seen 
in the rooms of the Tuna Club. 

The angling piers of California are unique. 
At Redondo you find a little shop at the en- 
trance with long rods and tackle to rent, and 
not far away the bait man, ready to provide 



182 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

clams, small fish, or anything you wish. Long 
Beach has several piers, and at Venice the pier 
is virtually a city street built out over the sea, 
with shops of various kinds and entertainments 
sufficient to divert the attention of the ghost 
of Walton. At the long, mile or more, pier 
at Santa Monica a house stands at the sea-end, 
far out to sea, and the rail is lined with anglers 
who employ strange tackle. A little shop pro- 
vides simple cheer to the physical man, and 
tackle can be rented and bait purchased. Back 
of the shop hangs a big scoop-net forty feet 
square, which is occasionally lowered and live 
bait caught, which is sold to the anglers whose 
ambition soars above sand-dabs and mackerel 
to the other realms of yellowtail or big sharks, 
or a possible ray. 



Group 21 
striped bass in california 

ANGLERS who enjoy the inspiriting 
New Jersey coast will find the same fish 
sport of the striped bass angling about 
San Francisco, into the waters of which it was 
introduced some years ago. Now the splendid 
fish is thoroughly acclimated and is the best 
market and game fish of the region. 

The bass follow small fry onto the San 
Pablo and other flats in the bay and are found 
in the river and sloughs where they can be taken 
at the last half of the ebb and first half of the 
flood tide. They are generally caught by troll- 
ing with a Wilson spoon from a small boat. 
The visitor who knows nothing of the con- 
ditions will waste time without a good boatman, 
as the angling is peculiar and it is necessary to 
know among other things that a brass spoon is 
the thing when the water is clear and an all sil- 
ver one when it is thick, and while lobster ap- 
peals to the cuttyhunk Puritan bass, clam is the 
bonne houche in the San Francisco sloughs, San 

133 



134 SALT WATER GAME FISi 

Antonio and Wingo sloughs are the best. A 
fifty-five-pounder has been taken here. The 
best time is from August ist to December, No- 
vember and December possibly being the best 
months for large fish. In East Oakland and 
San Leandro estuaries the striped bass is found 
in April on until late fall. At San Pablo and 
Rodeo the best time is March, April and May. 
The 9-ounce rod or 3-6 tackle is adequate for 
this game was a 6/0 hook and an assortment of 
Wilson spoons — No. 4, No. 5 or No. 6/0. 



Group 22 
the sea salmon 

THERE are countless salmon on the Pa- 
cific coast and a number of varieties 
which appeal to the angler; but the chief 
among ten thousand is the king salmon or 
chinook, Oncorphynchus tschawytscha. This 
fish, like the rest, will not take a fly except very 
rarely though I have heard that it will at Van- 
couver. The Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, is 
not found here, but the chinook spends the win- 
ter offshore near the mouth of the Sacramento, 
Rogue, Klamath, and Columbia rivers, and in 
the late summer can be found from Monterey 
or Del Monte to Vancouver and beyond, every- 
where affording excellent fishing with bait or 
spoon. 

In August the great schools of chinook can 
be found in Monterey Bay, five or six miles 
from Capitola or Santa Cruz, and near Del 
Monte or Monterey, there being a salmon can- 
nery at the latter city about one hundred miles 
135 



136 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

south of San Francisco. The angler will find 
the best of accommodations at Del Monte, 
Capitola or Santa Cruz in large and commodi- 
ous hotels or boarding houses. If these lo- 
calities had proper boats, light but safe, sea- 
going launches on the Santa Catalina plan, 
anglers would have a better chance, but as it is, 
mostly nondescript fishing boats are. used, and 
really enjoyable rod fishing is to be had only 
by the angler who goes out in a rowboat towed 
by some big launch, which can be had at Santa 
Cruz or Del Monte. 

The salmon appear to be lying about forty 
feet deep, feeding on the large schools of 
anchovies found here, and are fat and in fine 
condition for the long swim they are soon to 
take. When the school is located by your boat- 
man, with a hand-line and a heavy sinker, 
baited with a sardine, you may begin fishing 
with a rod. I used my 9-ounce yellowtail rod 
with No. 9 line and a No. 12 hook baited with 
a large sardine. It was necessary to get the 
sardine down to the fish, so a heavy sinker was 
employed, an ominous move so far as any 
pleasure with a rod is concerned, as what 
fish could play with a heavy flat sinker 
dangling about his head? I avoided this by 
by using an appliance invented by Mr. Parker 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 137 

J. Whitney, a veteran angler for salmon 
here. I doubled my line into a loop about a 
foot long, tied a piece of common thread on to 
one side, ran this through a pipe sinker and at- 
tached it to the opposite side of the loop. The 
object will be evident. When a salmon strikes 
the bait the slightest jerk breaks the thread, 
the pipe sinker drops off, and the angler has the 
salmon to play free of the leaden encumbrance. 
I tried this successfully and had excellent sport 
with salmon and white sea bass. 

In angling here there is always a large fleet 
of nondescript craft ranging from the profes- 
sional market boats of the Japanese to the ang- 
ler who is endeavoring to take his game in a 
sportsmanlike manner. 

These salmon run up to eighty pounds, but 
a forty-pounder is a good average. The boats 
go out at six o'clock, or soon after sunrise, 
from Del Monte, Capitola or Santa Cruz and 
by nine or ten the sport should be on. The 
w 7 ater should be smooth though there may be a 
ground swell in the great open bay. Suddenly, 
by eleven o'clock, earlier or later, a rushing 
sound is heard and looking seaward the angler 
sees a wall of foam coming on. This is caused 
by the so-called " trade" wind that rises daily 
all alongshore. This in a short time raises a 



138 SALTWATER GAME FISHING 

sea and the majority of the boats set sail for 
home, though the market men continue to troll 
for salmon in the fine stiff breeze with its rising 
sea. 

All along up the coast these fishes can be 
taken; now with sardine, now with a Wilson 
spoon. With the latter I have taken them on 
the Williamson River, a branch of Klamath 
Lake, Oregon. Eureka, California, affords, at 
the mouth of the Eel River, some of the finest 
sea angling in the state — salmon, cod and other 
game; and this may be found all alongshore to 
the north — Oregon, Washington, Vancouver, 
to Alaska. 

The time for salmon in Monterey is June, 
July and August, varying with seasons. In 
August the San Francisco anglers find them at 
Potato Patch and Duxbury Reef, an hour from 
the ferry, or Sausalito, opposite San Francisco, 
or Tiburon where boats can be had. San Fran- 
cisco anglers use a large hook and fresh sardine 
bait, also No. 7 Wilson spoon, with a torpedo 
sinker and a long-handle-gaff. Having located 
a school of sardines troll (drag the bait 
slowly). In August the chinooks enter San 
Francisco bay on their way up the Sacramento 
and San Joaquin rivers at which time they can 
be had at near Lime Point and Rancoon Straits 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 139 

by trolling with a No. 6 or No. 7 Wilson spoon 
(copper and silver). 

The salt water salmon fishing may be said 
to begin in May and end September 15th. 
Launches can be secured at Santa Cruz at $7.50 
per half day for the salmon fishing in Monterey 
Bay or at Monterey or Del Monte. 

While the steelhead is a rainbow' trout and 
this volume treats only of sea fishes, mention 
should be made of the big steelheads as they are 
caught in the ocean in winter and spring. One 
of the best localities is Eureka, and another is 
the salt water laguna at the mouth of the Santa 
Inez River near the town of Lompoc, Santa 
Barbara Co., Cal. Here in April the finest 
sport has been had either trolling from boats 
with a spoon or casting from the bank. The 
fall run after the first rain, when the water 
breaks through from the laguna to the sea is 
productive of good sport. An 8-ounce rod, E 
line and spoon is the lure. The Russian and 
other rivers around San Francisco are famous 
regions for this game fish. 



Group 23 
the santa catalina island swordfish 

WHILE two swordfishes are found in 
California, the Xiphias or flat-bill is 
an exceptional catch, the Tetrapturns 
or common Santa Catalina swordfish a very 
common one. The members of the Tuna Club 
of Avalon Bay took one hundred with rod and 
reel in 19 12, and a greater number in 19 13. 

The Xiphias is bulky, heavier and more com- 
pact than the latter; its sword is longer and 
flatter, and the fish is more of a living ram or 
dreadnaught. Individuals ranging up to one 
thousand pounds have been seen and an eight- 
hundred-pounder was caught in a net at Santa 
Catalina in 1902. 

The Santa Catalina Island swordfish, on the 
other hand, is lighter, longer, more trim and 
slender. The sword is more like a rapier than 
a sabre, and is shorter than in Xiphias. The 
fish has fifteen stripes, white on a blue ground, 
and is a more graceful fish than the fighter so 
140 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 141 

common off Block Island and such a well known 
market fish in Massachusetts. This swordfish 
comes in from somewhere in August, sometimes 
in July, often in vast schools covering a square 
mile in the San Clemente channel. Then they 
break up and are seen in pairs, either swim- 
ming along with the big fins out of water, or 
lying prone on the surface seemingly asleep. 
The fish are doubtless spawning; they affect 
the lee of the islands and are seen feeding near 
shore, taking the rock bass, fiying fish and 
others. 

By September, the warmest month in Cali- 
fornia, though always cool on the water, they 
will take a bait, and scores of anglers are now 
out after them. Many fish at Santa Catalina 
Island; others take a large launch and go to San 
Clemente. The charge is $15 per day for such 
a boat, which holds five or six comfortably. 
As the Shade camp is established at the island, 
anglers can live ashore. San Clemente is a 
governmental island, leased to Mr. Chas. 
Howland as a sheep ranch, and permission must 
be obtained before camping or landing. This 
courtesy should be observed. No one is re- 
fused if the proprieties are observed. 

Seated in the comfortable launch, previously 
described, the anglers unreel their 21-strand 



142 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

lines to a length of one hundred and fifty feet 
or so. You will observe that this wonderful 
line, that breaks at a strain of forty-two pounds, 
has red, blue and green silk wound about it at 
intervals, so when the angler sees red silk go- 
ing over he knows one hundred feet is gone; 
green one hundred and fifty, and so on. The 
line has previously been wet to avoid friction. 
The rod is a 16-ounce affair, one long tip and 
short butt; the reel holds six hundred or more 
feet of line, and is a wonderful machine with 
drags and click, which can be set at any tension, 
and when a swordfisE strikes all the angler has 
to do is to hold on to the handle as the line 
cannot break if the reel is set properly. The 
reel is on top of the rod, and the angler's left 
hand, if he is fishing on the left, or port side, 
grasps the upper grip, his right the lower grip 
on the butt. The rod rests over his knee and 
at an angle of forty-five degrees, to deflect his 
bait away from that of his companion at his 
side on the starboard side. If the baits meet 
confusion worse confounded results. The line 
has a piano-wire leader of fine steel eight or ten 
feet long, with several brass swivels. The 
hook is the best No. 10, to be had, and the 
ancient O'Shaughnessy type is mostly used, 
though there are many others doubtless equally 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 143 

as effective. A sinker is attached to keep the 
bait down. The latter is a flying fish. 

Once out a half-mile or so, your boatman, 
who is also gaffer, engineer and general adviser, 
suggests the " kite," a novel idea suggested by 
Capt. George Farnsworth, of Avalon, a noted 
big fish gaffer. You notice that he has an -or- 
dinary square kite which he puts up by sending 
the launch ahead rapidly, then he reeves the 
line through a ring attached to the kite. The 
boatman holds the kite cord, the angler his rod, 
and the launch is now moving along at about 
fivG miles an hour, towing the kite which is sixty 
or so feet in air, the angler's line leading to it 
through the ring and away to the bait in the 
water. The flying fish makes long leaps when 
alarmed, and, sustained by its wing-like fins, 
covers an eighth of a mile. The splash of the 
return of the flying fish to the water excites 
the predatory fishes and by jerking on his line 
and using the kite as a fulcrum, the boatman 
can successfully imitate this jump. Often the 
game is seen, its big dorsal and the tip of the 
caudal fin appearing high above the surface. 
We will assume that it is now seen by our ang- 
lers. The bait is jerked into the air, falls with 
a splash in front of the big fish; there is a swirl 
of water and the bait is taken. 



1U SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

The mouth of the swordfish is toothless and 
of hard gristle, so it is necessary to give the 
fish time. In a word, do not strike on the in- 
stant, as with trout; wait a few seconds, then 
taking up the slack with a few turns of the reel 
handle the angler gives the game the butt. His 
companion has of course reeled in his line to 
avoid complications. The boatman has stopped 
the launch and she floats on the perfectly ideal 
and smooth water under the shadow of the is- 
land mountains, on lake-like water, yet twenty 
miles out at sea from the mainland. 

The moment the swordfish feels the hook it 
is liable to make a terrific rush; then goes up 
into the air and standing virtually on its tail, 
dashes away in any direction. These leaps are 
extraordinary manifestations, and while I have 
never observed more than ten or twelve leaps 
of a tarpon on my rod, this swordfish will make 
fifty or more, and to see a fish ten feet in length 
going off, or coming at you standing on its tail, 
is a sight for the gods. At times, held by the 
line, it will circle the boat; again go into the air 
shake itself wildly, to fall with a crash. There 
appears to be no limit to its posturing in air, 
and it is not imaginary as I have photographs 
taken by Capt. George Michaelis and others, 
which show the fish in air. Dr. Gifford Pin- 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS U5 

chot counted fifty leaps of a swordfish before 
he brought it to gaff. I was following 
him in the launch and I fancied I could hear 
the return of the big fish as I was directly be- 
hind them. It was pitch dark and a heavy sea 
running in the San Clemente channel, so I did 
not see the fish leap ; but I have seen a Tetrap- 
turus go an estimated ten feet into the air and 
drop with a crash, after the manner of the ray. 

An expert angler with good wind can outplay 
a large Tetrapturus in from twenty minutes to 
one hour if the fish is not over two or three hun- 
dred pounds. If it is a very large fish it is 
likely to take more time. 

At last the game is brought near the boat and 
is going about it sullenly in great circles. It 
is the same fish that has rammed many a ship 
and forced the men to the pumps, and there is 
every chance of its ramming the boat and send- 
ing her to the bottom. Mr. Joseph Reed of 
Pasadena told me of a similar instance off 
Block Island, when a harpooned Xiphias came 
at the dory and sent its sword through it. This 
has never happened at Santa Catalina or San 
Clemente. 

The game within reach, the boatman grasps 
his long-handled gaff that has a long rope at- 
tached to the handle. Nearer comes the fish, 



146 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

and as it is reeled into this particular sphere 
of action the gaffer drops the steel point and 
hooks onto the swordfish in the under jaw, lifts 
its head quickly out of water and holds it while 
it strikes vicious blows with head or tail. This 
is the moment of supreme triumph for the weary 
angler. He stands and watches the exciting 
denouement, soaked in the flurry, and rejoices 
like a " strong man." And well he may, as the 
splendid fish is perhaps eleven feet in length and 
weighs anywhere from two hundred and fifty 
to three hundred and fifty pounds. It is a 
beautiful creature in the sunlight; a pure intense 
blue, with fifteen light-gray vertical stripes, giv- 
ing it a tiger-like appearance. It has a long 
rapier-like sword, a domed forehead, large hyp- 
notic staring eyes, powerful tail, which is now 
beating the water and tossing it over the men. 
But this is the end; the fish is soon killed, and 
hauled aboard and the blue flag of the Tuna 
Club goes to the top and they turn in to the 
Tuna Club, or to the pier at Avalon or Ca- 
brillo, to have the official weigher take it, who 
also photographs it for the records of the club. 
Another appliance used is called the " sled." 
This is a little floating sled which is attached 
to the line above the bait and headed away 
from the launch, and as she moves the sled car- 



PACIFIC COAST GROUNDS 147 

ries the bait one hundred or more feet away 
from her. In the case of a timid fish this is a 
deadly scheme as the game is not alarmed by 
the launch. 

This new sport — swordfish angling with rod 
and reel — is in a class by itself and, all in all, 
when the danger, the leaps and the spectacular 
play is considered, I should place it ahead of 
leaping tuna or tarpon. The leaping tuna is 
unquestionably the hardest fighting fish known 
to anglers ; I mean by this, the tuna in its best 
condition, and when the angler fights his fish 
standing off fairly and forcing the fish to come 
to him, instead of rushing the launch at the 
tuna and gaffing him before he knows where 
he is. In this way tunas have been taken in 
ten minutes, but the anglers who introduced 
tuna fishing — Doran, Macomber, Morehous, 
and others in 1889-90-91 had 16-ounce rods, 
No. 21 lines and big reels with no drag but a 
leather pad which was pressed on the line with 
the thumb of the right hand. 

The fight was made in a rowboat, and the 
boatman always had instructions to pull away 
from the fish while the angler fought him; the 
idea being to give the fish a square deal. This 
explains the long plays of Wood and Elms, 
fourteen hours; Beaman, ten hours; my own 



148 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

fish, four hours; Morehous, four hours (the 
record fish) . The angler fought the fish to a 
finish, and so intense and exhausting were some 
of these contests that several fatalities have 
occurred. The African buffalo and rhinoceros 
are believed to be two of the most dangerous 
and difficult animals to capture, but I recall one 
night when some members of the Tuna Club 
just over from Africa were comparing the 
sports — landing a two or three hundred-pound 
leaping tuna at its best, and killing a rhinoceros 
— arguing as to which was the most difficult 
feat, the palm was given to the doughty tuna. 
The swordfish has not the strength of the 
tuna, but it is a spectacular fish. Its leaps 
and dashes on its tail are extraordinary mani- 
festations of rage and astonishment, and when 
it can be taken in smooth waters, in a region 
where the climate is perfect in its relation to 
comfort it will be agreed that the new game is 
worthy its first place among the game fishes 
of the sea. The rod and reel record for this 
fish, on file at the Tuna Club, are as follows: 

Angler Date Weight 

W. C. Bosch en, New York 1913 355 pounds 

C. G. Conn. Elkhart 1909 339 " 

Col. John E. Stearns, Los Angeles 1910 292 

L. G. Murphy, Converse, Ind 1912 318 " 

Edward Llewellyn, Los Angeles... 1903 125 " 

Jesse Roberts, Philadelphia 1911 282 " 

Geo. E. Pillsbury, Jr., Los Angeles 1908 138 

F. T. Newport, Arcadia, Cal 1912 214 * 



APPENDIX 

AN ANGLING ITINERARY 

THE fishes described in this volume can 
all be taken in an arranged itinerary, 
and supposing the reader to be a sea 
angler the following general plan can be fol- 
lowed; not personally conducted, rather go as 
you please. While the plan includes only sea 
angling the traveling angler can fill in the links 
with incursions into the ranks of trout or black 
bass in whatever locality he may be. 

We may start from New York in spring; try 
the bay fishing, then to the coast of New Jersey 
for surf fishing, the striped bass at Harvey 
Cedars, the train to the gulf coast of Florida 
for tarpon. A few days on the Indian River, 
and down the coast to Long Key Camp or to. 
Key West. Then across the Gulf by steamer or 
cars to New Orleans and on to San Antonio, 
trying the tarpon at Port A.ransas, the head- 
quarters of the Tarpon Club, Mr. Cotter, sec- 
retary. A week or two here with tarpon, jew- 
149 



150 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

fish, kingfish and channel bass, and the angler 
crosses Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to 
California and Santa Catalina and San Clem- 
ente islands, where tuna, yellowtail, white sea 
bass, swordfish and others await, according to 
time and season. 

From here he moves on to Del Monte, Capi- 
tola or Santa Cruz and tries the chinook salmon 
in Monterey Bay, then the striped bass in San 
Francisco Bay. He then goes to Eureka by 
boat or cars for the salmon and sea-trout fish- 
ing in the mouth of the Eel River, from there, 
perhaps, to Klamath for rainbow trout, and on 
to Vancouver for more salmon. From this 
point the angler may be tempted to go to Alaska 
or to the Yellowstone for trout and to Montana 
or Idaho and back East by the Canadian Pa- 
cific and its lakes, arriving at the St. Lawrence 
for the fall fishing; then down through Maine 
to the Rangeley and other lakes for trout, bass 
and land-locked salmon, coming again to New 
York having completed the most remarkable 
angling trip in the world. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

As the present volume is intended as only 
suggestive of the sea fishing of America the fol- 
lowing books may aid the reader in obtaining 
greater detail relating to the great sea game 
fishes: 

The Book of the Tuna Club Avalon, Cal. 

American Food and Game Fishes (Jordan), 
Doubleday & Page, New York. 

The Book of the Tarpon (Dimock), 
Outing Publishing Co., New York. 

The Game Fishes of the World (Holder), 
Geo. W. Doran Co., New York. 

The Channel Islands of California (Hoi 
der), A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. 

The East Florida Fishes and How to Catch 
Them (W. H. Gregg). 

The Game Books of the Southern Pacific Co. 
(James Horsburgh, Jr.), Flood Building, San 
Francisco, Cal. 

Game Fishes of California, Dodge Pub. Co., 
New York. 

151 



152 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

Angler's Guide, Field and Stream Co., New 
York. 

Fishing Kits' and Equipment (Samuel G. 
Camp) Outing Publishing Co., New York. 

American Fishes (Goode), Estes & Lauriat, 
Boston 

Fish Stories (Dr. David Starr Jordan), 
Henry Holt & Co., New York. 

Big game at Sea (Holder), Outing Publish- 
ing Co., New York. 

The Log of a Sea Angler (Holder) Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. 

Angling Map of Southern California, A. T. 
Santa Fe R. R., Los Angeles, Cal. 



Angling Clubs 

The secretaries of the following clubs are 
willing to provide information as to the angling: 
The Asbury Park, N. J., Fishing Club. 
The Tarpon Club of Texas, Port Aransas. 
The Tarpon Club of Tampico, Mexico, Mr. 
Poindexter. The Tuna Club, Avalon, Santa 
Catalina Island, Cal. The California Rod and 
Reel Club, Los Angeles, Max Loewenthal, 
Pres. The Striped Bass Club, San Francisco. 
The Galveston Rod and Reel Club, Galveston, 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 153 

The San Francisco Fly Casting Club. The 
Angling Club of New York. The Tarpon 
Club, St. Petersburg, Florida. 

Climate 

What kind of climate the angler may expect 
in the various angling fiields herein described 
will be of interest. The Florida winters are 
delightful, and from December to April the 
angler will find fishing of some description and 
conditions similar to those in the north in sum- 
mer. The climate at Key West is particularly 
delightful. When the time for tarpon arrives 
in April or May, possibly March, it rapidly 
becomes warmer and more or less humidity may 
be expected, but it is pleasant on the water. 
The author has spent several seasons, winter 
and summer, on the outer reef beyond Key 
West, and it is hot, yet the enthusiastic angler 
will not mind it and a trip to the Florida reef 
in summer is worth while. The heat is tropica) 
and it is moist — all metal rusts and clothing 
moulds, and the government has not yet eradi- 
cated the mosquito. In fishing at Garden Key 
I wore the minimum attire and went overboard 
several times a day. I went to Aransas Pass, 
Texas, for tarpon in August and found it a very 



154 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

comfortable region for a semitropic one. A 
peculiar southeast wind blows nearly every sum- 
mer day on the island, and I never found it 
disagreeably hot on the water; nor did I mind 
it ashore. Of course it is hot, and the angler 
needs thin clothing and little of it. 

California 

In entering the regions recommended for sea 
angling on the Pacific coast the angler finds 
an entirely different state of affairs. Thus in 
leaving Florida or Texas or any eastern state 
from Massachusetts to the Mexican line in 
August and going to the California coast, par- 
ticularly the islands offshore he finds a very 
different climate. Here the heat is dry, lacking 
in humidity, and on the Santa Catalina, San 
Clemente, Coronada or Santa Barbara grounds 
offshore the angler finds an almost perfect cli- 
mate, cool and delightful, really uncomfort- 
ably warm days being the exception. The gov- 
ernment Weather Bureau has a branch station 
at the Tuna Club, and the club makes the re- 
ports, showing the climate of Avalon Bay to be 
well nigh perfect the year around; frost very 
rare and really hot days in summer the excep- 
tion. I can compare it only to Maine, and in 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 155 

May, June, July, August, September, and Oc- 
tober, day after day is perfect, cool, and de- 
lightful on the water, with the mercury averag- 
ing as follows: 

January, February, March (in the shade), 
63 . Temperature of the ocean, 64 . Gen- 
eral average in August, 67 ° (shade). Highest 
average summer temperature, 72 ; the lowest, 
65 . Highest in August, 74 (in the shade). 
Highest in September, on one day, 8i°. The 
lowest temperature ever recorded in December 
in Avalon was 5 1° ; the highest, 64 . The low- 
est sea bathing temperature for December was 
58 ; the highest, 64 . 

If I were to mention a possible fault with 
the California climate I should say that the 
nights are too cool ; so cool, indeed, that there 
is very little night boating, as in the East. This 
being so, anglers dress in California as they do 
in the East, the Florida equipment of linen and 
white duck being too thin, out of place, and 
rarely seen. This holds for the entire Pacific 
coast in summer. 

Equipment 

The habitual sea angler of course owns his 
rods and has a tackle bag equipped with all the 



156 SALTWATER GAME FISHING 

paraphernalia required in out-of-the-way places. 
But the occasional angler, who has not such 
possessions will often find himself without 
tackle, and in the heart of good fishing. Be- 
fore taking a trip to such fishing grounds a call 
should be made at some first class tackle shop 
in London or New York, as Mills, Abbey and 
Imbrie, Edwin Vom Hofe, New York, Hardy 
or Farlow, London, and there are others. It 
is economy to buy the best of everything. It 
is difficult to get good tackle in Nassau and in 
many places in Florida. In Aransas Pass, 
Texas, tackle may be rented. At Long Key 
Camp it can be either rented or purchased. In 
California there are good outfitting shops, as 
Tuft-Lyons or B. H. Dyas Company in Los 
Angeles, and several in San Franscico and Port- 
land, Ore. At Santa Catalina Island, at the 
town of Avalon, there are two tackle outfiitting 
establishments where the best New York and 
Los Angeles tackle, rods and reels can be had. 
More than this, every boatman here includes 
the use of the best tackle in the rent of the boat, 
which is $10 per day or $6 per half day, the 
understanding being that the angler replaces the 
tackle injured, lost or broken — a not unreason- 
able rule when rods, reels and lines are the best 
made and naturally expensive. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 157 

Angling Grounds 

New York 

Around New York, the Sound, Great South 
Bay and the lower bay are more or less secluded 
waters. To go outside to the deep sea banks 
the angler takes one of the numerous steamers 
that are in the business in summer. 

Florida 

From New York to Florida alongshore there 
is a succession of sandy low beaches on which 
the sea pounds. I doubt if there is a rock or 
stone or a real hill in all the distance ; hence all 
the angling is off the beach or in some inlet, or 
in the mouth of rivers, as the St. Mary or St. 
John's. Coming to Florida we find a great out- 
side island or stretch of sand inclosing a long 
body of water with runs out into the Gulf 
Stream and back again through various passes. 
This island lake is called Indian River. The 
lagoons begin in latitude 29°, or thereabouts, at 
or near New Smyrna in Mosquito Lagoon and 
continue to Jupiter, latitude 27°, or thereabouts 



158 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

All along this coast there is fine angling and 
equipped with W. H. Gregg's " Where, When, 
How to Catch Fish on the East Coast of 
Florida, " a voluminous, conscientious, and per- 
fectly reliable book on Florida fishing, the ang- 
ler cannot fail to find the best of sport. 



Florida Reef 

The trip to Florida and to Key West by rail 
alone, aside from the fishing is an experience 
every sea angler should have. The Florida 
Keys and the reef begin in a general way at 
Jupiter on the east coast. Here you are in 
Biscayne Bay and have fine fishing at Fowey 
Rocks, and down the coast, inside and out; in 
fact, as I have previously said, anywhere in a 
radius of two hundred miles from Cape Sable 
north or south there is fine fishing. At Long 
Key Camp we find the famous angling or fishing 
camp in the heart of the wonderful keys which 
end in the Tortugas group, where I spent a 
number of years, winter and summer, fishing for 
the wonderful fishes, over six hundred of which, 
from pompano to tarpon, are game on the right 
tackle. From Key West, sixty miles west, the 
Tortugas group can be reached. At Logger- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 159 

head Key the Carnegie Institute maintains a 
biological station. 



California 

Los Angeles, a city of 600,000, is headquar- 
ters for anglers going to the channel islands and 
Los Angeles Port is but eighteen miles from the 
north end of Santa Catalina, where the little 
town of Cabrillo affords the finest fishing on the 
island. It is beautifully located on an isthmus 
and directly opposite is a land-locked harbor 
where, it is said, Cabrillo wintered when he dis- 
covered the island in 1542 and, one hundred 
years later, Vizcaino. 

Santa Catalina is the only island that has 
a town and regular lines of steamers. Avalon, 
the largest port, is a town of from 5,000 to 
8,000 in summer; has hotels, boarding houses, 
camps, shops, fleets of boats, and is a thoroughly 
wide awake town, situated on Avalon Bay thirty 
miles from Los Angeles. There are three 
steamers daily in summer and one in winter. 
The island is twenty-two miles long and about 
sixty around; a big mountain range rising from 
the sea. Of all the islands it lies northwest 
and southeast; its north side affording a perfect 



160 SALT WATER GAME FISHING 

lee and protected coves, thus making the big 
game fish angling possible. 

The Coronados to the south have good fish- 
ing, but are uninhabited, dry rocks in Mexican 
waters. The Santa Barbara Islands — Santa 
Rosa, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, and San Miguel — 
lie one hundred miles to the north of the Santa 
Catalina group. They are all private property 
and permission must be obtained to land. The 
fishing is good, but, due to their east and west 
position, the islands are subject to heavy winds 
and have no lee like that at Santa Catalina. To 
reach them boats may be chartered at Santa 
Catalina, San Pedro, or Santa Barbara. Large 
boats are necessary and the trip should not be 
made without an experienced skipper. Such a 
man is Captain Larco of Santa Barbara. 



THE END 



INDEX 



Albacore, 21 
Amberjack, 18, 65, 67 
Angel-fish, 18, 73 
Angling 

Beach casting, 32 

Still fishing, 32 

Swordfish, 38 

Trolling, 32 

Tuna, 94 

Wharf fishing, 33 
Angling Clubs, 153 
Angling Itinerary, 149 
Aransas Pass, 20, 77 t 149 
Asbury Park, 17 
Avalon, 22, 88 
Bandfish (Catalineta), 73 
Barracuda, 22, 125 

Sphyraena barracuda, 61 

S. Argentea, 63 

Sphyraena borealis, 64 
Bass 

Black Sea (Stereolepis 
gigas), 22, 112 

Channel, 16, 17, 51 

Rock, 22, 46, 124 

Sand, 128 

Sea, 16, 46, 47 

Striped, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 
43, 44, 45, 133 

White Sea (Cynoscion 
nobilis), 21, 22, 116 
Bergall, 49 
Bibliography, 151 
Blackfish, 13, 16, 48 
Blacksmith, 125 
Bluefish, 13, 14, 15, 16, 58 
Bonefish, 18 



161 



Bonito, 21, 22, 109 

California (Sarda chilen- 
sis), no 

Oceanic {Gymnosarda pe- 
lamis), 109 
Boothbay, 14 
Bream {Lagodon), 73 
Buzzard's Bay, 14 
California Whiting (Menti- 
eirrhus undulatus), 129 
Cero, 18 
Chogset, 48, 49 
Chub, 48, 74 
Climate, 153 
Cod, 13, 14, 20, 48 
Coronado Islands, 22, 87 
Croaker 

Spot fin (Roncador 
stearnsi), 129 

Little (Geny ononis line- 
atus), 129 

Golden (Umbrina ronca- 
dor), 130 
Cunner, 49 
Drum, 52 
Escolaro, 85 
Fishing Grounds, 13 

Chesapeake Bay, 17 

Florida, 18, 61, 157, 158 

Gulf, 19, 83 

New England, 13, 14, 34 

New York and New Jer- 
sey, 16, 17, 157 

Pacific Coast, 20, 87, 159 

Tarpon, 78 
Fisher's Island, 15 
Fluke, 48 



162 



INDEX 



Galveston, 19 
Grouper 

Black (Garrupa nigrita), 
81 

Nassau, 82 

Red, 81, 82 

Spotted, 82 
Grunt, 18, 72 
Haddock, -13 
Hake, 13 
Halibut, 13, 14 
Harvey Cedars, 17, 149 
Hind 

Crock, 82 

Red, 82 

Speckled, 82 
Hogfish (Lachnolaimus fal- 

catus), 74 
Indian River, 19, 149 
Jewfish (Promicrops 

g ansa) , 80 
Kingnsh (Sconiberomorus 

cavalla), 18, 63 
Ladyfish, 18 

Albula vulpes, 70, 130 
Long Key, 19, 149 
Mackerel, 13, 16 

California, 125 

Monterey Spanish (S. 
concolor), 86 

Spanish (S. maculatus), 
85 

Spanish (S. Sierra), 86 
Nippers (C. tenolabrus), 49 
Ocean. Point, 14 
Oyster-fish, 48 
Parrot-fish, 18, 48, 73 
Perch, 124, 125 
Peto (Acanthocybium so- 

landri), 84 
Pollock, 13, 14, 39, 40 
Pompano, 75 
Porgy, 18, 48 
Calamus, 73 



Pumping, 106 

Roncador (Umbrina), 22, 

125 
Sailfish, 18, 65 
St. John River, 18 
St. Mary River, 18 
Salmon, 20 

San Clemente, 21, 87 
San Luis Obispo, 21 
Santa Barbara, 21, 87 
Santa Catalina, 21, 87 
Sea Salmon, 135 

Chinook (Oncorphynchus 
tschawytscha), 135 
Sea-trout, 20, 126 
Shark, 14, 15 

Sheepshead, 18, 22, 53, 124 
Skipjack, no 
Snappers, 18, 60 

Gray (Lutianus griseus), 
72 

Mangrove, 72 

Red, 72 
Squeteaque, 55 
Squirrel-fish, 48 
Squirrel Island, 14 
Steelhead trout, 139 
Surf-fish (Menticirrus un- 

dulatus), 22, 125 
Swordfish, 65 

Histiophorus, 36 

Istiophorus nigricans, 66 

Record fish, 148 

Tetrapturus am plus, 66 

Tetrapturus imperator, 66 

Tetrapturus mitsukiui, 22, 
34, 35, 140 

Xiphias, 13, 14, 22, 34, 35, 
36, 37, 38, 140 
Tackle, 24, 155 

Amber jack, 68 

Barracuda, 62, 64 

Black Grouper, 82 

Bluefish, 60 



INDEX 



163 



Casting, 31 

Channel bass, 52 

Chub, 74 

Gray snapper, 72 

Hogfish, 74 

Kingfish, 83 

Pollock, 40 

Roncador, 31 

,Sea bass, 113, 117 

Sea salmon, 136 

Sheepshead, 54 

Snapper, 60 

Striped bass, 134 

Swordfish, 67, 142 

Tarpon, 31, 77 

Tautog, 49 

Ten-pounder, 71 

Tuna, 26, 89, 96 

Yellow-tail, 122 

"9-9," 29 

"3-6," 30 
Tarpon, 17, 18, 20, 76, 78, 

79 
Tautog, 13, 48 



Ten-pounder (Elops sau- 

rus), 70 
Triple Tail (Lobotes), 17, 

^ 73 

Tuna, 14, 37, 87, 91 
Leaping (Thunnus thyn- 
nus), 22, 95 
Record fish, 97, 98 
Long-fin ( Thunnus ala- 
longa), 22, 104 
Record fish, 107 
Yellow-fin (Thunnus ma- 
cula t a), 22, 1 01 
Record fish, 103 
Tuna Club, 24, 25, 89 

Records, 97, 98, 103, 107 
Weakfish, 16, 17, 48, 55 
Whitefish, 124 
Yellow-fin (Seriphus poll- 

tus), 125, 129, 130 
Yellow-tail, 67 
Bairdiella chrysurus, 7$ 
Ocyurus chrysurus, 72 
Seriola dorsalis, 68, 119 
Seriola lalandi, 68 



0-U3WG 



HANDBOOKS 



The textbooks for out- 
door work and play 



Q Each book deals with a separate subject and deals with it thor- 
oughly. If you want to know anything about Airedales an OUTING 
HANDBOOK gives you all you want. If it's Apple Growing, another 
OUTING HANDBOOK meets your need. The Fisherman, the 
Camper, the Poultry-raiser, the Automobilist, the Horseman, all 
varieties of out-door enthusiasts, will find separate volumes for their 
separate interests. There is no waste space. 

^ The series is based on the plan of one subject to a book and each 
book complete. The authors are experts. Each book has been 
specially prepared for this series and all are published in uniform 
style, flexible cloth binding. 

H Two hundred titles are projected. The series covers all phases 
of outdoor life, from bee-keeping to big-game shooting. Among the 
books now ready or in preparation are those described on the fol- 
lowing pages. 

PRICE SEVENTY CENTS PER VOL. NET, POSTAGE 5c. EXTRA 
THE NUMBERS MAKE ORDERING EASY. 

1. EXERCISE AND HEALTH, by Dr. Woods 

Hutchinson. Dr. Hutchinson takes the common-sense view that 
the greatest problem in exercise for most of us is to get enough of 
the right kind. The greatest error in exercise is not to take enough, 
and the greatest danger in athletics is in giving them up. He writes 
in a direct matter-of-fact manner with an avoidance of medical terms, 
and a strong emphasis on the rational, all-round manner of living 
that is best calculated to bring a man to a ripe old age with little 
illness or consciousness of bodily weakness. 



2. CAMP COOKERY, by Horace Kephart. «The 
less a man carries in his pack the more he must carry in his head," 
says Mr. Kephart. This book tells what a man should carry in both 
pack and head. Every step is traced — the selection of provisions 
and utensils, with the kind and quantity of each, the preparation of 
game, the building of fires, the cooking of every conceivable kind of 
food that the camp outfit or woods, fields or streams may provide — 
even to the making of desserts. Every recipe is the result of hard 
practice and long experience. 




3. BACKWOODS SURGERY AND MEDICINE, 
by Charles S. Moody, M. D. A handy book for the pru- 
dent lover of the woods who doesn't expect to be ill but believes in 
being on the safe side. Common-sense methods for the treatment 
of the ordinary wounds and accidents are described — setting a 
broken limb, reducing a dislocation, caring for burns, cuts, etc. 
Practical remedies for camp diseases are recommended, as well as 
the ordinary indications of the most probable ailments. Includes a 
list of the necessary medical and surgical supplies. 

4. APPLE GROWING, by M. C. Burritt. The 

various problems confronting the apple grower, from the preparation 
of the soil and the planting of the trees to the marketing of the fruit, 
are discussed in detail by the author. Chapter headings are: — The 
Outlook for the Growing of Apples — Planning for the Orchard — 
Planting and Growing the Orchard— Pruning the Trees — Cultivation 
and Cover Cropping — Manuring and Fertilizing — Insects and Dis- 
eases Affecting the Apple — The Principles and Practice of Spraying 
— Harvesting and Storing — Markets and Marketing — Some Hints on 
Renovating Old Orchards — The Cost of Growing Apples. 

5. THE AIREDALE, by Williams Haynes. The 
book opens with a short chapter on the origin and development of 
the Airedale, as a distinctive breed. The author then takes up the 
problems of type as bearing on the selection of the dog, breeding, 
training and use. The book is designed for the non-professional dog 
fancier, who wishes common sense advice which does not involve 
elaborate preparations or expenditure. Chapters are included on the 
care of the dog in the kennel and simple remedies for ordinary 
diseases. 



6. THE AUTOMOBILE— Its Selection, Care and 
Use, by Robert Sloss. This is a plain, practical discussion of 
the things that every man needs to know if he is to buy the right car 
and get the most out of it. The various details of operation and 
care are given in simple, intelligent terms. From it the car owner 
can easily learn the mechanism of his motor and the art of locating 
motor trouble, as well as how to use his car for the greatest pleasure. 
A chapter is included on building garages. 

7. FISHING KITS AND EQUIPMENT, by 

Samuel G. Camp. A complete guide to the angler buying a new 
outfit. Every detail of the fishing kit of the freshwater angler is de- 
scribed, from rodtip to creel, and clothing. Special emphasis is laid 
on outfitting for fly fishing, but full instruction is also given to the 
man who wants to catch pickerel, pike, muskellunge, lake-trout, bass 
and other freshwater game fishes. Prices are quoted for all articles 
recommended and the approved method of selecting and testing the 
various rods, lines, leaders, etc., is described. 




8. THE FINE ART OF FISHING, by Samuel G. 

Camp. Combine the pleasure of catching fish with the gratification 
of following the sport in the most approved manner. The sugges» 
tions offered are helpful to beginner and expert anglers. The range 
of fish and fishing conditions covered is wide and includes such sub« 
jects as "Casting Fine and Far Off," "Strip-Casting for Bass," "Fish- 
ing for Mountain Trout" and "Autumn Fishing for Lake Trout." 
The book is pervaded with a spirit of love for the streamside and 
the out-doors generally which the genuine angler will appreciate. 
A companion book to "Fishing Kits and Equipment." The advice 
on outfitting so capably given in that book is supplemented in this 
later work by equally valuable information on how to use the 
equipment. 

9. THE HORSE— Its Breeding, Care and Use, by 
David Bunum. Mr. Buffum takes up the common, every-day 
problems of the ordinary horse-users, such as feeding, shoeing, 
simple home remedies, breaking and the cure for various equine 
vices. An important chapter is that tracing the influx of Arabian 
blood into the English and American horses and its value and limi- 
tations. Chapters are included on draft-horses, carriage horses, and 
the development of the two-minute trotter. It is distinctly a sensible 
book for the sensible man who wishes to know how he can improve 
his horses and his horsemanship at the same time. 



10. THE MOTOR BOAT— Its Selection, Care and 
Use, by H. W. Slauson. The intending purchaser is advised 
as to the type of motor boat best suited to his particular needs and 
how to keep it in running condition after purchased. The chapter 
headings are : Kinds and Uses of Motor Boats — When the Motor 
Balks — Speeding of the Motor Boat — Getting More Power from a 
New Motor — How to Install a Marine Power Plant — Accessories — 
Covers, Canopies and Tops — Camping and Cruising — The Boathouse. 

11. OUTDOOR SIGNALLING, by Elbert Wells. 

Mr. "Wells has perfected a method of signalling by means of wig- 
wag, light, smoke, or whistle which is as simple as it is effective. 
The fundamental principle can be learned in ten minutes and its 
application is far easier than that of any other code now in use. 
It permits also the use of cipher and can be adapted to almost any 
imaginable conditions of weather, light, or topography. 

12. TRACKS AND TRACKING, by Josef Brunner. 

After twenty years of patient study and practical experience, Mr. 
Brunner can, from his intimate knowledge, speak with authority on 
this subject. "Tracks and Tracking" shows how to follow intelli- 
gently even the most intricate animal or bird tracks. It teaches how 
to interpret tracks of wild game and decipher the many tell-tale 
signs of the chase that would otherwise pass unnoticed. It proves 
how it is possible to tell from the footprints the name, sex, speed, 
direction, whether and how wounded, and many other things about 
wild animals and birds. All material has been gathered first hand; 
the drawings and half-tones from photographs form an important 
part of the work. 




13. WING AND TRAP-SHOOTING, by Charles 

Askins. Contains a full discussion of the various methods, 
such as snap-shooting, swing and half-swing, discusses the flight of 
birds with reference to the gunner's problem of lead and range and 
makes special application of the various points to the different birds 
commonly shot in this country. A chapter is included on trap 
shooting and the book closes with a forceful and common-sense 
presentation of the etiquette of the field. 



14. PROFITABLE BREEDS OF POULTRY, by 

Arthur S. Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler discusses from personal ex- 
perience the best-known general purpose breeds. Advice is given 
from the standpoint of the man who desires results in eggs and stock 
rather than in specimens for exhibition. In addition to a careful 
analysis of stock — good and bad — and some conclusions regarding 
housing and management, the author writes in detail regarding 
Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, 
Mediterraneans and the Cornish. 

15. RIFLES AND RIFLE SHOOTING, by Charles 

Askins. A practical manual describing various makes and mechan- 
isms, in addition to discussing in detail the range and limitations in 
the use of the rifle. Treats on the every style and make of rifle 
as well as their use. Every type of rifle is discussed so that the 
book is complete in every detail. 

16. SPORTING FIREARMS, by Horace Kephart. 

This book is the result of painstaking tests and experiments. Prac- 
tically nothing is taken for granted. Part I deals with the rifle, and 
Part II with the shotgun. The man seeking guidance in the selec- 
tion and use of small firearms, as well as the advanced student of 
the subject, will receive an unusual amount of assistance from this 
work. The chapter headings are: Rifles and Ammunition — The 
Flight of Bullets — Killing Power — Rifle Mechanism and Materials — 
Rifle Sights — Triggers and Stocks — Care of Rifle — Shot Patterns and 
Penetration — Gauges and Weights — Mechanism and Build of 
Shotguns. 

17. THE YACHTSMAN'S HANDBOOK, by Herbert 

L. Stone. The author and compiler of this work is the editor of 
u Yachting." He treats in simple language of the many problems 
confronting the amateur sailor and motor boatman. Handling 
ground tackle, handling lines, taking soundings, the use of the lead 
fine, care and use of sails, yachting etiquette, are all given careful 
attention. Some light is thrown upon the operation of the gasoline 
motor, and suggestions are made for the avoidance of engine 
troubles. 

18. SCOTTISH AND IRISH TERRIERS, by Wil- 
Hams Haynes. This is a companion book to "The Airedale," 
and deals with the history and development of both breeds. For 
the owner of the dog, valuable information is given as to the use of 
the terriers, their treatment in health, their treatment when sick, 
the principles of dog breeding, and dog shows and rules. 



19. NAVIGATION FOR THE AMATEUR, by Capt. 

E. T. Morton. A short treatise on the simpler methods of find- 
ing position at sea by the observation of the sun's altitude and the 
use of the sextant and chronometer. It is arranged especially for 
yachtsmen and amateurs who wish to know the simpler formulae 
for the necessary navigation involved in taking a boat anywhere off 
shore. Illustrated with drawings. Chapter headings : Fundamental 
Terms — Time — The Sumner Line— The Day's Work, Equal Altitude, 
and Ex-Meridian Sights — Hints on Taking Observations. 

20. OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY, by Julian A. 

Dimock. A solution of all the problems in camera work out-of- 
doors. The various subjects dealt with are : The Camera — Lens and 
Plates — Light and Exposure — Development — Prints and Printing — 
Composition — Landscapes — Figure Work— Speed Photography — The 
Leaping Tarpon — Sea Pictures — In the Good Old Winter Time — 
Wild Life. 

21. PACKING AND PORTAGING, by Dillon 

Wallace. Mr. Wallace has brought together in one volume all 
the valuable information on the different ways of making and carry- 
ing the different kinds of packs. The ground covered ranges from 
man-packing to horse-packing, from the use of the tump line to 
throwing the diamond hitch. 

22. THE BULL TERRIER, by Williams Haynes. 

This is a companion book to "The Airedale" and "Scottish and Irish 
Terriers" by the same author. Its greatest usefulness is as a guide 
to the dog owner who wishes to be his own kennel manager. A full 
account of the development of the breed is given with a description 
of best types and standards. Recommendations for the care of 
the dog in health or sickness are included. The chapter heads 
cover such matters as: — The Bull Terrier's History — Training the 
Bull Terrier — The Terrier in Health — Kenneling — Diseases. 




23. THE FOX TERRIER, by Williams Haynes. 

As in his other books on the terrier, Mr. Haynes takes up the origin 
and history of the breed, its types and standards, and the more ex- 
clusive representatives down to the present time. Training the Fox 
Terrier — His Care and Kenneling in Sickness and Health — and the 
Various Uses to Which He Can Be Put — are among the phases 
handled. 

24. SUBURBAN GARDENS, by Grace Tabor. 

Illustrated with diagrams. The author regards the house and 
grounds as a complete unit and shows how the best results may be 
obtained by carrying the reader in detail through the various phases 
of designing the garden, with the levels and contours necessary, 
laying out the walks and paths, planning and placing the arbors, 
summer houses, seats, etc., and selecting and placing trees, shrubs, 
vines and flowers. Ideal plans for plots of various sizes are appended, 
as well as suggestions for correcting mistakes that have been made 
through "starting wrong." 




25. FISHING WITH FLOATING FLIES, by 

Samuel G. Camp. This is an art that is comparatively new in 
this country although English anglers have used the dry fly for 
generations. Mr. Camp has given the matter special study and is 
one of the few American anglers who really understands the matter 
from the selection of the outfit to the landing of the fish. Hi3 book 
takes up the process in that order, namely — How to Outfit for Dry 
Fly Fishing — How, Where, and When to ^ast — The Selection and 
Use of Floating Flies — Dry Fly Fishing for Brook, Brown and 
Rainbow Trout — Hooking, Playing and Landing— Practical Hints on 
Dry Fly Fishing. 

26. THE GASOLINE MOTOR, by Harold Whiting 

Slauson. Deals with the practical problems of motor operation. 
The standpoint is that of the man who wishes to know how and 
why gasoline generates power and something about the various 
types. Describes in detail the different parts of motors and the 
faults to which they are liable. Also gives full directions as to re- 
pair and upkeep. Various chapters deal with Types of Motors — 
Valves — - Bearings — Ignition — Carburetors — Lubrication — Fuel — 
Two Cycle Motors* 



27. ICE BOATING, by H. L Stone, illustrated with 

diagrams. Here have been brought together all the availabloin- 
formation on the organization and history of ice-boating, the build- 
ing of the various types of ice yachts, from the small 15 footer to 
the 600-foot racer, together with detailed plans and specifications. 
Full information is also given to meet the needs of those who wish 
to be able to build and sail their own boats but are handicapped by 
the lack of proper knowledge as to just the points described in this 
volume. 

28. MODERN GOLF, by Harold H. Hilton. Mr. 

Hilton is the only man who has ever held the amateur champion- 
ship of Great Britain and the United States in the same year. In 
addition to this, he has, for years, been recognized as one of the 
most intelligent, steady players of the game in England. This book 
is a product of his advanced thought and experience and gives the 
reader sound advice, not so much on the mere swinging of the clubs 
as in the actual playing of the game, with all the factors that enter 
into it. He discusses the use of wooden clubs, the choice of clubs, 
the art of approaching, tournament play as a distinct thing in itself, 
and kindred subjects. 

29. INTENSIVE FARMING, by L. C. Corbett. 

A discussion of the meaning, method and value of intensive methods 
in agriculture. This book is designed for the convenience of prac- 
tical farmers who find themselves under the necessity of making a 
living out of high-priced land. 

30. PRACTICAL DOG BREEDING, by Williams 
Haynes. This is a companion volume to PRACTICAL DOG 
KEEPING, described below. It goes at length into the funda- 
mental questions of breeding, such as selection of types on both 
sides, the perpetuation of desirable, and the elimination of undesir- 
able, qualities, the value of prepotency in building up a desired 
breed, etc. The arguments are illustrated with instances of what 
has been accomplished, both good and bad, in the case of well- 
known breeds. 

31. PRACTICAL DOG KEEPING, by Williams 

Haynes. Mr. Haynes is well known to the readers of the OUTING 
HANDBOOKS as the author of books on the terriers. His new 
book is somewhat more ambitious in that it carries him into the 
general field of selection of breeds, the buying and selling of dogs, 
the care of dogs in kennels, handling in bench shows and field trials, 
and at considerable length into such subjects as food and feeding, 
exercise and grooming, disease, etc, 




32. PRACTICAL TREE PLANTING, by C. R. 

Pettis. The author, who is the New York State Forester, takes up 
the general subject of reforesting, covering nature's method and the 
practical methods of broadcast seed-sowing, seed spot planting, 
nursery practice, etc. The various species are described and their 
adaptability to varying conditions indicated. Results of reforesting 
are shown and instructions are given for the planting of wind- 
breaks and shade trees. 

33. GUNSMITHING FOR THE AMATEUR, by 

Edward C. Crossman. Mr. Grossman, who is one of the best- 
known rifle experts in the country, takes up in detail the care and 
repair of the gun. He discusses such questions as The Present 
Development of the Gun — Tools for the Amateur — Rifle Barrels — 
Smooth Bore Barrels — Rifle Actions — Pistol and Gun Actions — Re- 
finishing and Processing — The Stock, Sights and Aids to Accuracy. 

34. PISTOL AND REVOLVER SHOOTING, by A. L. 

A. Himmelwright. A new and revised edition of a work that has 
already achieved prominence as an accepted authority on the use of 
the hand gun. Full instructions are given in the use of both revolver 
and target pistol, including shooting position, grip, position of arm, etc. 
The book is thoroughly illustrated with diagrams and photographs 
and includes the rules of the United States Revolver Association 
and a list of the records made both here and abroad. 

35. PIGEON RAISING, by Alice MacLeod. This 

is a book for both fancier and market breeder. Full descriptions 
are given of the construction of houses, the care of the birds, pre- 
paration for market, and shipment. Descriptions of the various 
breeds with their markings and characteristics are given. Illustrated 
with photographs and diagrams. 

36. INSECTS ON THE FARM, by E. P. Felt. 

A practical manual by the New York State Entomologist. He 
classifies insects — good and bad — according to crops and gives direc- 
tions for the eradication of the harmful and the encouragement of 
the desirable. Full descriptions are given of the principal varieties. 



37. MARINE GAS ENGINEERING, by A. L. 

Brennan, Jr. This is a practical manual -written from the stand- 
point of a teaching engineer. All the details of marine gas engine 
construction and operation are described, step by step, with explan- 
atory diagrams. All technical terms and appliances are fully denned 
and the latest developments and refinements are traced and described. 
It is a book for the man who wants to understand and operate his 
own engine. 

38. THE RUNNING HOUND, by Roger Williams. 

This includes the greyhound and all the deer and staghounds that 
run by sight alone. The origin of the various breeds is traced and 
and striking individuals in each class are described. Instructions 
are given for breeding, care and training for field and show purposes. 
Illustrated with photographs of types. 

39. SALT WATER GAME FISHING, by Charles 

F. Holder. Mr. Holder covers the whole field of his subject 
devoting a chapter each to such fish as the tuna, the tarpon, amber- 
jack, the sail fish, the 7 r ellow-tail, the king fish, the barracuda, the 
sea bass and the small game fishes of Florida, Porto Rico, the Pacific 
Coast, Hawaii, and the Phi ippines. The habits and habitats of the 
fish are described, together with the methods and tackle for taking 
them. The book concludes with an account of the development 
and rules of the American Sea Angling Clubs. Illustrated. 

40. WINTER CAMPING, by Warwick S. Carpenter. 
A book that meets the increasing interest in outdoor life in the cold 
weather. Mr. Carpenter discusses such subjects as shelter equipment, 
clothing, food, snowshoeing, skiing, and winter hunting, wild life in 
winter woods, care of frost bite, etc. It is based on much actual ex- 
perience in winter camping and is fully illustrated with working 
photographs. 

41. THE TRAILING HOUND, by Roger Williams. 

In this book General Williams takes up the hounds that run by scent, 
such as the foxhound, the bloodhound, and the beagle. He gives 
full instructions for care in the kennels, feeding, treatment of disease, 
breeding, etc., and follows it up with directions for training for field 
and show purposes. Illustrated with photographs of the various 
types which are fully described in the text. 

42. BOAT AND CANOE BUILDING, by Victor 

Slocum. All of us like to think we could build a boat if we had 
to. Mr. Slocum tells us how to do it. Designs are given for the 
various types of canoes as well as full descriptions for preparing the 
material and putting it together. Small dories and lapstreak boats 
are also included. 



43. BASS AND BASS FISHING, by James A. 

Henshall. Mr. Henshall has made a special study of the basses 
in all parts of the United States, a work for which his connection 
with the Bureau of Fisheries has given him exceptional opportunities. 
He discusses the habits of the bass and the methods and tackle 
appropriate for its capture. He also gives in detail the latest facts 
in regard to the artificial culture and planting of this valuable 
game fish. 

44. BOXING, by D. C. Hutchison. Practical in- 

struction for men who wish to learn the first steps in the manly 
art. Mr. Hutchison writes from long personal experience as an 
amateur boxer and as a trainer of other amateurs. His instructions 
are accompanied with full diagrams showing the approved blows 
and guards. He also gives full directions for training for condition 
without danger of going stale from overtraining. It is essentially a 
book for the amateur who boxes for sport and exercise. 

45. TENNIS TACTICS, by Raymond D. Little. 

Out of his store of experience as a successful tennis player, Mr. 
Little has written this practical guide for those who wish to know 
how real tennis is played. He tells the reader when and how to 
take the net, discusses the relative merits of the back-court and 
volleying game and how their proper balance may be achieved; 
analyzes and appraises the twist service, shows the fundamental 
necessities of successful doubles play. 

46. THE AUXILIARY YACHT, by H. L. Stone. 

Combines information on the installation of power in a boat that 
was not designed especially for it with the features desirable in de- 
signing a boat for this double use. Deals with the peculiar proper- 
ties of the auxiliary, its advantages and disadvantages, the handling 
of the boat under sail and power, etc. Does not go into detail on 
engine construction but gives the approximate power needed for 
different boats and the calculations necessary to find this figure. 

47. TAXIDERMY, by Leon L. Pray, illustrated with 

diagrams. Being a practical taxidermist, the author at once goes into 
the question of selection of tools and materials for the various stages 
of skinning, stuffing and mounting. The subjects whose handling 
is described are, for the most part, the every-day ones, such as 
ordinary birds, small mammals, etc., although adequate instructions 
are included for mounting big game specimens, as well as the pre- 
liminary care of skins in hot climates. Full diagrams accompany 
the text. 



H 184 84 













lk"*-- , > 









>* yj£'. 


















*„ . . * 



,0* ,••'., V 

• av\*'. o 

















IECKMAN 

INDERY INC. 

SEP 84 




N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 



>*% 







.... -*- 













